Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood

SUPPORTIVE PARENTING FOR ANXIOUS CHILDHOOD EMOTIONS OR SPACE

DR. JAN NEWMAN

What do you do when you’re a psychologist who is getting tired of so much Zoom and miss face-to-face sessions, trainings, coffee, and the rest?

You make a video and post it on Youtube before you overthink it! Well, my true goal was to help some people in the process!

In this video, I talk about Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions or SPACE. Earlier this year before the pandemic shut down the world, I went to Yale to visit with the team there and received my certification in this awesome program.

SPACE is a parent-only evidence-based therapy for children and teens with anxiety and OCD that has been found to be just as effective as individual therapy.

Well, what’s the big deal? Wouldn’t it just be easier to take your child to therapy and drop them off?

I know that could be a precious hour that you could catch up on work, run errands, or have a moment of peace. It sounds awesome. Yet, this approach is not always effective. Why? Because we know a few things:

1) Most kids don’t want to go to therapy even with a highly effective therapist. It’s just not the most fun thing you can do when you’re dealing with a pandemic. It’s easier for parents to commit to therapy.

BTW – A highly effective therapist is going to use evidence-based treatment (read – has mad skills) AND be highly interpersonally skilled (read – kids thinks he/she “gets it” and “isn’t full of crap like most grown ups” and is warm, caring, and maybe even cool!). But alas, it still isn’t Xbox.

2) The research is clear. The biggest variable that affects positive outcomes for individuals in therapy is their motivation and engagement. So, if the child isn’t motivated to attend or engage in therapy, it doesn’t work as well.

3) Although there are biological factors at play, anxiety is a learned behavior, so it’s highly environmentally influenced. So, doing therapy with an anxious child without involving the parents or supporting them isn’t going to work.

So, here’s my first video – taped on a Friday afternoon after I had been out biking with a helmet. Not my best idea. Then, I thought, “Why don’t I just bite the bullet and post on Youtube! I mean no one has ever had something bad happen there!.” Well, at least my son thinks I’m cool now because I have a Youtube channel!

SUPPORTIVE PARENTING FOR ANXIOUS CHILDHOOD EMOTIONS OR SPACE

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