In person in Tampa · Virtual throughout Florida and vermont
SPACE Treatment in Tampa, FL
A parent-based therapy to reduce child anxiety, avoidance, and ARFID - without requiring your child to come to sessions.
What is SPACE Treament?
SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is a research-backed therapy model where you, the parent, are the client. No dragging your kid to a therapist's office. No convincing them to open up to a stranger. You come in, we work together, and what changes at home changes what's happening for your child.
SPACE was developed at Yale and has solid research behind it showing that when parents shift how they respond to anxiety, kids' anxiety actually decreases. Not because you did something wrong - but because anxiety is sneaky and the things that feel like helping (reassuring, accommodating, avoiding) often keep the cycle going longer than anyone wants.
If you've been stuck in patterns around reassurance, avoidance, school refusal, meltdowns, or food refusal and nothing's worked - this is the model built for exactly that.
What SPACE Treatment Helps With
SPACE is effective for a range of challenges families face - and I offer specialized work across several of them:
Childhood Anxiety & OCD
Constant reassurance-seeking, refusing school, avoiding anything that feels hard, meltdowns when plans change. If you feel like you're walking on eggshells and nothing you do is ever quite enough — SPACE was built for this.
ARFID & Picky Eating
I'm trained in SPACE-ARFID, which is a specialized application of the model for families navigating food avoidance, sensory eating challenges, and ARFID diagnoses. This work is weight-neutral and judgment-free, always.
Failure to Launch & Young Adult Avoidance
When your teenager or young adult is stuck — not leaving the house, not moving forward, not engaging with life — and the more you push, the further they retreat. SPACE offers a different way in.
Who space treatment is for
Children and teens with anxiety, worry, panic, OCD symptoms, or school refusal
Children with picky eating or an ARFID diagnosis
Families where the child resists or refuses therapy
Highly sensitive parents who feel stressed, overwhelmed, or unsure how to respond
Parents who feel “stuck” in reassurance or negotiating loops
Families experiencing bedtime struggles, avoidance behaviors, or emotional meltdowns
Parents seeking a non-blaming, evidence-based approach that truly works
*SPACE treatment can be done in-person in Tampa or virtually anywhere in Florida or Vermont
Here’s what we’ll do together
What SPACE Treatment in Tampa, FL Looks Like
Sessions are with you - not your child. That said, if your kid is older and motivated, there's room for them to join in. But the default is parent-only, and it works.
We're not going to spend our time diagnosing what's "wrong" with your child or helping you understand their anxiety from a clinical distance. We're going to figure out what's actually happening in your home - the specific patterns, the specific responses - and build a plan to shift them in a way that feels manageable and doesn't ask you to become a different person overnight.
SPACE teaches you to:
✔Recognize the accommodations that are accidentally keeping anxiety in charge (and acknowledging the ones that are working)
✔Respond with warmth and confidence — not one or the other
✔Help your child face hard things gradually, without pushing them over a cliff
✔Get out of the reassurance loop without making them feel abandoned
✔Regulate your own nervous system in the middle of their storm (because you matter too)
Results take time, but they're real. Most families start noticing shifts within the first several weeks - not just in the child's behavior, but in how the whole household feels.
A little about me
I'm Keri Baker, an LCSW, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, and SPACE-trained therapist based in Tampa, FL. I specialize in working with highly sensitive adults and parents who are exhausted, stuck, and ready for something to actually change.
I'm also a parent who has navigated ARFID with my own kid. I've sat in the spaces you've sat in - the appointments, the second opinions, the meals that didn't go well, the guilt that came after. I don't approach this work from a textbook. I approach it as someone who gets it from the inside.
My SPACE work is:
Tailored for thoughtful, sensitive parents
Grounded in nervous system awareness - yours and your child's
Shame-free and non-blaming
Focused on changes that are sustainable, not just theoretically correct
Designed to reduce overwhelm, not pile onto it
Questions?
FAQs about SPACE Treatment in FL
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SPACE sessions are supportive, structured, and focused on creating real change at home. During treatment, we will:
Identify your child’s specific anxiety triggers and avoidance patterns
Explore parent behaviors that have developed (often unintentionally)
Choose one realistic behavior to tweak at a time
Develop supportive statements that promote safety and confidence
Create a step-by-step plan for reducing anxiety-driven behaviors
Adjust your plan as things shift at home
You leave each session with actionable tools—not more overwhelm.
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Yes - that's literally what it was designed for. Your child never needs to attend a session. You're the one doing the work, which means their participation (or lack of it) doesn't determine whether you can get help.
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Typically 12–20 sessions, but this varies depending on what's going on and how quickly patterns shift. We'll have a real conversation about that in your free consultation.
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It's common, and it's workable. Ideally all parents are involved - but we can start with one, and we'll talk about how to navigate the differences in a way that doesn't pit you against each other.
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Yes - and the fact that you're asking that tells me you're probably a really thoughtful parent. This work is explicitly shame-free. We're not here to find out what you've been doing wrong. We're here to figure out what to do differently. You’ve been coping the best you can.
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SPACE doesn't ask you to suddenly throw your kid into the deep end. The changes are gradual, calibrated, and communicated - your child is never blindsided. The warmth doesn't go anywhere. What shifts is the pattern underneath it.
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That's great - and sometimes ideal. I work collaboratively with other providers when that's the setup. SPACE can run alongside other treatment without conflict.
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Yes. The model adapts for teens, and honestly, it's sometimes more effective with teens because going to therapy themselves can feel like a non-starter. This gives you a way in.
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Yup! SPACE translates really well to virtual. I offer it in-person in Tampa and virtually throughout Florida and Vermont.
You can support your child's independence and bring more calm into your home - even if it doesn't feel possible right now.
I offer a free 15-minute consult so you can get a feel for whether this is the right fit - no pressure, no commitment.
Accepting new clients · Tampa in-person & virtual throughout Florida & Vermont
SPACE Treament in Tampa, FL
Services are also offered virtually throughout Florida and Vermont