SPACE - ARFID
SPACE for children and adolescents struggling with
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and “Picky Eaters”.
Finding yourself preparing special meals for your child? avoiding serving specific foods?
Dreading family meals, dinner outings, or social gathering involving food?
Stressed by your child’s restricted diet or inflexibility around food?
SPACE-ARFID might be what you need!
SPACE-ARFID is an adaptation of the SPACE program (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions), specifically designed to support parents of children and adolescents with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) and other food- related challenges, such as: inflexibility around foods, food related aversiveness, food restrictions, food refusal, and anxiety related to eating.
How SPACE-ARFID works:
Parents are the primary participants in treatment, but children are still the focus of care.
The program teaches parents how to:
· Respond more supportively to their child’s eating-related anxiety
· Reduce family accommodations that unintentionally reinforce avoidance
· Create a more peaceful and productive mealtime environment
· Support gradual increases in food flexibility and comfort
Expected outcomes include:
· Decreased anxiety and stress related to eating
· Greater flexibility around foods
· Expansion of the child’s “accepted foods” list
· Fewer mealtime struggles and reduced family conflict
· Increased functioning in a variety of food-related settings
Because SPACE-ARFID does not require direct participation from the child, it can be especially helpful when children are resistant to therapy or highly avoidant.
Although children do not have to attend SPACE - ARFID sessions - they are the patients!
Contact me for a free consultation and to learn whether SPACE-ARFID treatment is for you.