Parenting a Child with Anxiety or OCD

When a child is struggling with anxiety or OCD, parents are often the first to sense that something isn’t right. You may notice your child avoiding everyday situations like school, social activities, or being alone. They might seek constant reassurance, ask repetitive “what if” questions, melt down when routines change, or become distressed by intrusive thoughts or fears that don’t seem to make sense. In the case of OCD, you may see rituals like repeated washing, checking, mental “reviewing,” or strong reactions when things don’t feel “just right.” Over time, many parents feel exhausted, worried, and unsure how to help—especially when their best efforts don’t seem to be reducing their child’s distress.

How we can help

For parents of children struggling with anxiety and OCD, we use Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), a research-backed program that teaches you to respond to your child in ways that helps reduce their anxiety and to reduce behaviors that may unintentionally keep anxiety or OCD going. In SPACE, we will focus on changes you can make to your own behavior that will help reduce your child’s anxiety; you will not ever be asked to make your child change their behavior. Although children do not attend sessions in SPACE treatment, they remain the focus of care. In other words, you are attending counseling to help reduce your child’s anxiety or OCD symptoms and to increase their functioning. Helping your child is at the heart of the work we will do together.

In a well‑intentioned effort to help their child feel better, parents often begin to accommodate anxiety or OCD, for example by answering repeated reassurance questions, modifying family routines, avoiding triggers, or helping with rituals. While these accommodations are completely understandable (and the norm not the exception in parents of anx!), they can inadvertently reinforce anxiety and OCD over time. In SPACE, we work together to gently and thoughtfully identify which accommodations may be maintaining your child’s symptoms and create a plan to reduce them in a way that feels manageable and supportive for both you and your child.

A core part of SPACE involves helping parents respond to their child’s distress with supportive, confidence‑building statements. Rather than trying to eliminate anxiety or fix fears, parents learn how to communicate belief in their child’s ability to handle discomfort and uncertainty. This helps children internalize confidence and gradually face fears on their own, even when anxiety is present. Parents are not asked to be harsh or sudden in their approach. SPACE is delivered in a collaborative and compassionate manner, and is paced carefully to build your child’s confidence and support real, lasting change.

For parent counseling sessions you have the option to either meet in person at our office or online via telehealth.