Integrated Behavioral Health
SPACE Therapy Program
For Parents of Anxious Kids & Teens
SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions): A supportive, parent-led approach to helping your child or teen overcome anxiety and OCD. In-person in Denver and Greenwood Village, with online options across Colorado.
Our SPACE therapy program can help your family:
End the cycle of reassurance-seeking and anxious meltdowns at home
Reduce family conflict and get both parents on the same page
Watch your child gain confidence without forcing them into therapy
Therapy can help your child:
Feel empowered to find their voice
Effectively articulate their feelings
Develop strategies to navigate challenges
You love your child, but you're exhausted.
Anxiety has been taking up all the space in your home. Mornings are a battle. Bedtime takes hours. Date nights don’t happen. And somewhere along the way, your home stopped feeling like a home.
Our SPACE therapy program gives parents a clear plan, backed by research, to finally feel like they know what to do.
SPACE Therapy Program | Denver & Greenwood Village
What is the SPACE Therapy Program?
SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is a research-backed, parent-based treatment developed at the Yale Child Study Center specifically for families of children and teens struggling with anxiety and OCD.
Here’s what makes it different from anything you’ve probably tried before: Your child doesn’t have to attend sessions.
SPACE works by coaching you, the parent, to change the way you respond to your child’s anxiety. And the research is clear: When parents shift their responses, children’s anxiety decreases significantly, even without the child ever sitting in a therapist’s office.
Every accommodation you’ve ever made came from love. Every reassurance, every rearranged plan, every late night and skipped event was love in action. SPACE doesn’t ask you to stop. It asks you to channel that same love into something that actually moves your child forward.
And as that happens, something shifts for you, too. You start to feel more confident in the hard moments, more present in the good ones, and more like the parent you always wanted to be.
- Separation anxiety
- Social anxiety
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Child OCD and Teen OCD
- Panic disorder
- Phobias (dogs, storms, needles, and more)
- ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)
The SPACE therapy program gives you the tools to feel confident in how you respond to your child. Visit us in Denver, Greenwood Village, or online anywhere in Colorado.
SPACE Therapy Program | Denver & Greenwood Village
How Our SPACE Therapy Program Can Help
Managing Anxiety Disorders
Whether your child is struggling with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, separation anxiety, or phobias, anxiety has a way of quietly taking over the whole family’s life. Our SPACE therapy program helps you understand what’s driving your child’s fears and gives you the tools to respond in ways that help them cope.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Therapy
Child OCD and teen OCD can be exhausting to witness. The rituals, the reassurance-seeking, the intrusive thoughts that won’t let up, and the temporary relief that never lasts. SPACE helps you understand what OCD is asking of your child, and more importantly, how to stop the cycle at home so your child can start to find solid ground again.
Overcoming Avoidance and Fear
Skipping the birthday party. Refusing the school trip. Turning down the sleepover. When anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder makes the world feel too big, avoidance starts to feel like the kindest option. The SPACE therapy program helps you gently, gradually widen your child’s world again without forcing, fighting, or ultimatums.
Reducing Self-Criticism and Shame
Many children and teens carry deep shame about their fears, their rituals, or their “big” reactions to things that seem small. The SPACE therapy program helps you become the steady, non-judgmental presence your child needs; someone who sees them clearly and loves them unconditionally, even on the hardest days.
Parent Support and Confidence
When you and your partner are having trouble getting on the same page about how to approach things, the tension between you starts adding another layer of stress to an already exhausted household. SPACE gives both parents a shared framework so your child receives one clear, consistent, loving message from the two people who matter most.
Building Resilience in the Long Term
Anxiety and OCD don’t disappear overnight. But with the right approach, they lose their grip. SPACE builds your confidence as a parent while building your child’s resilience from the inside out, so that the progress you make at home carries forward into school, friendships, and everything that comes next.
When you’re ready to become the parent you have always wanted to be, we’re here to help you take the first step.
Why Us
Why Work With
Integrated Behavioral Health
.
I believe therapy & assessments should be a collaborative process between the client and the therapist.
At Integrated Behavioral Health, our goal is to help families feel more confident and to have the resources they need. We support you in riding the ups and downs of parenting, while helping you navigate the complex landscape of having a child with unique needs.
When you’re facing anxiety or uncertainty about how to parent effectively, it can be overwhelming to balance all the competing priorities. You might struggle to find a parenting approach that aligns with your values and helps you feel connected and capable. We’re here to help you understand and meet your child’s unique needs while staying true to yourself.
We support the emotional well-being of parents as individuals too. This includes stress management, identity shifts, relationship strain, and burnout. When caregivers feel supported and grounded, the entire family benefits.
With over a decade of combined experience, we offer therapy and evaluations that are grounded in evidence-based practices, collaborate with professionals and individuals working with your child, and provide comprehensive recommendations to help you or your child thrive. We guide you through handling the toughest challenges, providing you with practical tools and strategies that foster confidence and fulfillment in your journey.
We believe the therapeutic process should be:
Empathetic
Being a parent can feel overwhelming, especially with the flood of information from social media and parenting books. We meet you and your child exactly where you are and offer compassion and empathy to help you move forward.
Evidence-based
Our diverse therapy methods and assessments are all rooted in evidence-based practices. Our goal is to help you and your child make tangible progress and feel empowered to navigate daily life confidently, even beyond therapy.
Values-based
Every family, child, and parent are different. What is okay for one parent is not okay for another parent. We make sure that we understand your family’s values and come alongside to support them rather than prescribing one type of approach to a situation.
Meet Our Team
Match With A SPACE Therapist In Denver & Greenwood Village
Our Approach
How Our SPACE Therapy Program Works
We Get To Know You
We start by getting to know your child's anxiety or OCD symptoms, the accommodations that have built up over time, and where the tension lives in your home. This helps us create a personalized plan tailored to your family’s unique situation.
We Build Your Roadmap
We teach you the core principles of SPACE, including how to use Supportive Statements that validate your child's fear while expressing confidence in their ability to cope. Together, we'll choose one specific accommodation to reduce first and walk through exactly how to do it with warmth and consistency.
We Help You Stay On Course
Change takes time, and there will be moments of pushback, but we'll meet with you regularly to troubleshoot, adjust, and celebrate progress. Over time, as your child's world gets bigger, your home gets calmer, and you get to just be their parent again.
SPACE Therapy Program | Denver & Greenwood Village
Questions About SPACE Therapy Program
What exactly is "parental accommodation," and am I doing it?
Parental accommodation is any action you take to help your child avoid the distress caused by their anxiety or OCD. It looks like speaking for a socially anxious child at a restaurant, sleeping in your child’s room because they’re scared, or avoiding certain foods because of ARFID-related fears. These behaviors come entirely from love, and they’re also the main reason anxiety stays stuck. In the SPACE therapy program, we don’t judge them. We simply learn how to gently reduce them so your child can build their own “bravery muscles.”
Does my child really not have to come to sessions?
Correct. SPACE is a parent-based treatment where the child is not required to be in the room. This is a game-changer for families with kids who are treatment-resistant, refuse to talk to a therapist, or have teen OCD or anxiety that makes sitting across from a stranger feel impossible. Research from the Yale Child Study Center confirms that when parents change their responses, children’s anxiety decreases significantly, even without the child attending a single session.
Isn't this just "tough love"?
Not at all. SPACE is built on a foundation of high warmth combined with a reduction in accommodation. Tough love says, “figure it out.” SPACE says, “I know this is hard, and I believe you can do it.” We teach you to use Supportive Statements that validate your child’s fear as real and scary, while expressing complete confidence that they can handle it. Compassionate and structured, not sink-or-swim.
How is SPACE different from regular therapy or parent training?
Traditional anxiety treatment and CBT ask the child to change. SPACE focuses entirely on the parent. Most parent training programs are built around behavior management: rewards, consequences, and discipline. But anxiety isn’t a behavior problem. It’s a biological and emotional one. SPACE is specifically designed for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and it works by changing the family environment rather than putting all the pressure on a child who may not be ready or willing to engage.
What if my partner and I can't agree on how to handle this?
You’re not alone. This is one of the most common things we hear. It’s very typical for one parent to lean toward soothing while the other leans toward pushing, which creates friction between partners on top of everything else. SPACE sessions give both of you a shared, evidence-based framework so your child receives one clear, consistent message from the two people who matter most to them.
How long until we see results?
Most parents begin to notice a shift in the family “vibe” within 8 to 12 sessions. The anxiety doesn’t vanish overnight, but the tension in the home often decreases much sooner. Once you have a clear plan and know exactly what to do in the hard moments, everything starts to feel a little more manageable.
Can SPACE help if my child also has ADHD or sensory issues?
How is SPACE different from CBT?
CBT requires the child to actively participate in treatment. SPACE works through the parent, making it a strong option for children who are unwilling or unable to engage in traditional therapy.
What if my child has already tried therapy and it didn't work?
The SPACE therapy program is often a great fit for families who have tried traditional anxiety treatment without lasting results. Because the work happens through the parent rather than the child, it opens a new path forward even when other approaches have fallen short.
SPACE Therapy Program | Denver & Greenwood Village
Positive Outcomes of Our SPACE Therapy Program
When you’ve completed your work with us, something fundamental will have shifted. You’ll have moved from accommodation to support, and your whole family will feel it.
Over time, families who complete SPACE often experience:
- Fewer arguments between partners about how to handle the child
- A child who can tolerate discomfort rather than always avoiding it
- The freedom to go out to dinner, travel, and say yes to life again
- A daily routine that isn't derailed by "what ifs"
- A parent-child bond that feels solid and peaceful
Contact Integrated Behavioral Health
How To Get Started
Get started with Integrated Behavioral Health in Denver & Greenwood Village by booking a free consultation with our clinic coordinator. We’ll take the time to understand your unique situation and match you with a therapist whose expertise aligns with your needs. You can book a free consultation online using the button below. You can also call us or send us a message via the contact form if you prefer an email consultation.
SPACE Therapy Program | Denver & Greenwood Village
Integrated Behavioral Health
A space to breathe, a plan to move forward, and a team in your corner.
