Childhood Anxiety, Family, and Schools – From Accommodation to Resilience with Dr. Eli Lebowitz
General Information
Title: Childhood Anxiety, Family, and Schools: From Accommodation to Resilience
Presenter: Eli R. Lebowitz, PhD. Developer or SPACE Model.
Dates: Monday, November 30, 2026 | 3:00–5:00 p.m. |
Fee: $65. Includes CE credits and 2 months access to recordings.
Venue: Zoom
CE Credits: 2
Childhood Anxiety, Family, and Schools – From Accommodation to Resilience with Dr. Eli Lebowitz
Description
Childhood anxiety often affects not only the child, but also parents, schools, and the broader family system. In well-intentioned efforts to reduce distress, adults may provide repeated reassurance, change routines, remove demands, or help the child avoid feared situations. Although these responses can bring short-term relief, research indicates that family accommodation and avoidance can be associated with greater anxiety-related impairment and reduced confidence in the child’s ability to cope.
This evidence-based two-hour presentation will examine childhood anxiety through a systemic and developmental lens, with particular attention to family accommodation, reassurance seeking, avoidance, school refusal, and the distinction between supportive and accommodating responses. Dr. Lebowitz will introduce the principles underlying Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), a parent-based treatment shown to be noninferior to child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy in randomized clinical trials. Participants will learn a practical conceptual framework for helping parents and schools communicate confidence in a child’s capacity to tolerate distress while reducing responses that inadvertently reinforce anxiety. This is an introductory overview of the SPACE model and is not a certification or comprehensive training in delivering SPACE.
Instructors
Eli R. Lebowitz, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Yale Child Study Center at Yale School of Medicine and Co-Director of its Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program. A child and adolescent psychologist, his research and clinical work focus on anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, family accommodation, and parent-based interventions. Dr. Lebowitz developed Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), an evidence-based parent treatment for childhood and adolescent anxiety and related problems. He is an active researcher, educator, and author whose work has helped clarify how changes in parental responses can strengthen a child’s coping and reduce anxiety-related impairment.
Childhood Anxiety, Family, and Schools – From Accommodation to Resilience with Dr. Eli Lebowitz
Objectives
1. 1. Describe how family accommodation, repeated reassurance, and avoidance can contribute to the maintenance of childhood anxiety and anxiety-related functional impairment.
2. 2. Differentiate supportive responses that communicate acceptance and confidence from accommodating responses that facilitate avoidance or remove developmentally appropriate expectations.
3. 3. Identify at least two SPACE-informed principles that clinicians can use when helping parents or schools respond to childhood anxiety, reassurance seeking, or school refusal.
CE Information
Continuing Education Credits are granted through Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, PLLC for the following professions: Psychologists, Social workers, Mental Health Counselors, LMFTs, and LCATs. It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards to verify CE requirements for their state.
Please Note: Licensing Boards change regulations often, and while we attempt to stay abreast of their most recent changes, if you have questions or concerns about this course meeting your specific board’s approval, we recommend you contact your board directly to obtain a ruling.
APA
Nachas Consulting is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, PLLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
ASWB
Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, PLLC, 2035, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/02/2025 – 08/02/2028 Social workers completing this course receive 2 Clinical continuing education credits.
NBCC
Neuhoff Psychological Consulting PLLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7503. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
New York State Social Workers
Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0785.
New York State Mental Health Counselors
Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Mental Health Counselor #MHC-0195
New York State Psychology
Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0072.
New York State Marriage Therapy
Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0121.
New York State Creative Arts Therapist
Neuhoff Psychological Consulting, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists. #CAT-0112.
References
References
Etkin, R. G., Zilcha-Mano, S., & Lebowitz, E. R. (2022). Clinical update: The role of family accommodation in youth anxiety treatment outcomes. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 7(3), 295–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/23794925.2021.1981175
Kitt, E. R., Lewis, K. M., Galbraith, J., Abend, R., Smith, A. R., Lebowitz, E. R., Pine, D. S., & Gee, D. G. (2022). Family accommodation in pediatric anxiety: Relations with avoidance and self-efficacy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 154, 104107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2022.104107
Lebowitz, E. R., Marin, C., Martino, A., Shimshoni, Y., & Silverman, W. K. (2020). Parent-based treatment as efficacious as cognitive-behavioral therapy for childhood anxiety: A randomized noninferiority study of Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(3), 362–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2019.02.014
Satisfactory Completion:
Participants must have signed in and out, attended the entire workshop to receive a certificate. Failure to sign/log in or out will result in forfeiture of credit for the entire course. No exceptions will be made. Partial credit is not available. Certificates are available electronically after satisfactory course completion. A link will be provided for those who have completed the training.
Childhood Anxiety, Family, and Schools – From Accommodation to Resilience with Dr. Eli Lebowitz
Policies
Application Deadline: November 3, 2026 or until all training spaces are filled, whichever comes first.
Notification of Acceptance
Applicants will be notified, via email, of acceptance when registration is complete, and payment is received.
Refund/Cancellation Policy
Tuition/registration payments are refundable until October 30, 2026. Cancellations after this date are non-refundable. In this situation, we will attempt to find someone to take your slot (based on our waiting list).
Accessibility
There will be handicap accessibility.
Course level
Level of clinician
Our Grievance Policy for trainings is available here.
Childhood Anxiety, Family, and Schools – From Accommodation to Resilience with Dr. Eli Lebowitz
Schedule
| Monday, November 30, 2026 | 3:00–5:00 p.m. Eastern Time | 3:00–3:10 p.m. | Welcome, disclosures, learning objectives, and overview of childhood anxiety in family and school contexts 3:10–3:35 p.m. | Anxiety as a systemic interpersonal phenomenon and the role of cargivers 3:35–4:00 p.m. | Family accommodation: forms, functions, short-term relief, and long-term maintenance of anxiety 4:00–4:25 p.m. | School-related anxiety and school refusal: coordinating expectations, support, and reduction of avoidance 4:25–4:50 p.m. | Introduction to SPACE principles: supportive statements, reducing accommodation, and communicating confidence in the child’s ability to cope; guided clinical examples 4:50–5:00 p.m. | Questions, clinical discussion, and summary of key applications |
Childhood Anxiety, Family, and Schools – From Accommodation to Resilience with Dr. Eli Lebowitz
Register
