Question about SPACE

[Alena]

I’ve begun reading Eli Lebowitz’s book Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD along with implementing tools and language from Natasha’s videos and courses. We’re primarily focused on my 8 y/o’s theme of separation anxiety, and I’ve been reaching out to SPACE trained therapists for consults.

A couple years ago we did PCIT which was super helpful. Given my daughter’s ADHD and language based LDs, we prefer to find a therapist who can coach us to work on her anxiety for now.

I’m looking for opinions on working through Lebowitz’s book on our own first before investing in a clinician? ($300/session by us)

Or should we just dive in with a therapist?

Thank you!

[Rina L]

Hi Alena,

Thank you for recommending this book by Eli Lebowitz. I’ve never heard of SPACE or PCIT, and looked them up and these two treatment approaches, along with CBT and ERP seem like great tools for a family and child clinician to learn (I’m a child and family clinician/clinical social worker and am considering this).

I have an 8 yr. old son who gets anxious each morning because he doesn’t want to be away from me when he goes to school (stinker- (his brain glitch) gets him nervous into thinking that he’s going to throw up in school and it frightens him). Natasha has a video which I started to watch about “Neuroplasticity” and it’s effects on the brain which I’ve been finding very helpful. I’ve spent much of this past summer trying to find a trained ERP specialist for my son but so many places were full to capacity or are “out of network”/ out of pocket. One place did respond back (I live in MA), but the fee per session was just way too much money for what we could afford right now. In consulting with the coordinator there she mentioned that they have a paraprofessional that has extensive work with ERP and has worked over at Bradley Hospital. This paraprofessional is the one who runs their ERP and OCD workshops—he’s a fraction of the cost. I guess, my point is, perhaps seeing if they have a paraprofessional or mentor that the licensed lead clinician supervises who has SPACE training would be a good idea to start with?…In the meantime, applying some of the approaches you’ve read in Eli’s book would be a great start (although I haven’t read the book myself so please use your own judgement). I wouldn’t overwhelm yourself—and if you need any support, remember how important self care and a community such as this is! I requested a hold on Eli’s book from the library so once it becomes available I’ll check it out too. Thanks again for this recommendation!

🙂 Rina

 

[Alena]

Thank you Rina! I am new to the group and finding the community suggestions and support so helpful.

Based on the suggestions I’ve received, I’ve switched to an audio format for Lebowitz’s book, which is more manageable for me, and complementing it with Natasha’s SPACE online study guide/road map. I’m still in the early stages but having a lot of “Aha” moments already. I have found a child therapist specializing in anxiety who’s not familiar with SPACE, but is open to us using her as a consultant if we get stuck, which softens the financial strain. We’ll hire a SPACE trained clinician for the time-limited program if we don’t have success with doing it on our own. I love your idea of also looking for paraprofessionals who know the ropes. (Frankly, I think I will look into it for my own continuing ed!)

Good luck with your boy! I’m heartened to at least have some direction at last.

[Author]

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