Tzuria Bernstein
What can be done when a child doesn’t want to go to therapy?
What if therapy isn’t progressing?
OCD in children can be difficult for both the child and the close family. Although there are evidence-based treatments for OCD that have proven effective in many studies, even the best therapies don’t always work. Sometimes the child struggles to cooperate with treatment, and sometimes the child doesn’t want to attend therapy at all. There are even cases where, despite cooperation, the treatment proves ineffective. In other words, we know there will be children and adolescents who won’t benefit from traditional OCD therapy.
The good news is that there’s an alternative. In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that it’s possible to treat childhood and adolescent OCD even without the child being present in therapy.
Parent-guided therapy is becoming increasingly established as an effective alternative to direct treatment with the child. In many cases, it even has added benefits—especially when the family feels that the child’s anxiety is “taking over” the household routine. Parent-guided therapy can help restore order at home and bring back a calm, healthy daily life.
The parent-guided treatment that is gaining scientific validation and showing increasing research support is called SPACE – Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions.
The uniqueness of SPACE lies in the fact that even though the work is typically done with the parents, the child is the patient. The goal of the treatment is to bring relief to the child (and along the way, parents gain coping tools, and often their own anxiety decreases as well). This is based on the view that children’s difficulties are systemic—that the child exists within a family system, and the child’s challenges can be reduced by introducing changes to that system.
During the treatment, parents learn how to respond supportively, reduce behaviors that reinforce the symptoms, and overall, acquire tools and skills that help their child overcome OCD.
This is a short-term treatment that usually consists of 8 to 16 therapy sessions.
Our clinic’s therapists have received specialized training in the SPACE method, and we would be happy to help you too!