SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) Resource for Families

By Pastor Sonja Hagander

​At many cottage meetings I attended, parents voiced their concern and curiosity on how faith was forming in their children.  Parents wondered what the real impact of faith formation is on how their children are growing, exploring and leading full and busy lives. How do we parent today? How can our elders who have already been through this help us? What is this overwhelming growth of anxiety and depression in children and teens? I am no therapist, but as a pastor and parent and in my work with therapists, with 20-some years of work with young adults who have helicopter parents, I have come to know something called SPACE: supportive parenting for anxious childhood emotions. With SPACE, parents are the ones doing the changing, not the kid (it’s not about blaming social media, or blaming cell phones for the rise in anxiety and depression). Two main changes that parents learn to make is to 1) respond more supportively to their child and to 2) reduce the accommodations they as parents have been making. You can learn more about it in this article… I encourage you to read it!