SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) for ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)

Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) can create significant distress for children, teens, and their families. When mealtimes feel tense, limited food variety interferes with growth or daily functioning, or a child’s eating becomes a central focus of family life, caregivers often feel overwhelmed and unsure how to help.

At Compassionate Healing Institute, we offer SPACE for ARFID, a parent-based treatment designed to support families in reducing eating-related anxiety and expanding flexibility around food—without requiring the child to participate directly in therapy.

SPACE empowers caregivers to make meaningful, lasting changes that support their child’s relationship with food and decrease the patterns that inadvertently keep ARFID symptoms in place.

What Is SPACE for ARFID?

SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is an evidence-based, parent-focused intervention originally developed for anxiety and OCD. Its principles translate powerfully to ARFID because this feeding disorder often involves:

Anxiety about textures, tastes, or sensory discomfort
Fear-based avoidance related to choking, vomiting, or medical events
Rigid eating patterns that become reinforced over time
Family accommodations that unintentionally maintain avoidance

Through a structured therapeutic process, SPACE helps caregivers reduce accommodations, increase support, and create a calmer, more effective approach to helping their child move forward with eating.

How SPACE Helps With ARFID

SPACE treatment focuses on changing the family environment around eating—not forcing the child to confront feared foods. By adjusting their responses, caregivers become the primary agents of change.

SPACE for ARFID helps caregivers:

Understand the role of anxiety and avoidance in ARFID
Reduce accommodations that increase dependence or limit food variety
Respond to food refusal or distress with confidence and clarity
Introduce supportive statements that encourage progress
Create a consistent, manageable structure around mealtimes
Support gradual flexibility without pressure or conflict

This approach can complement nutrition counseling, medical monitoring, or additional therapies as needed.

What to Expect in SPACE Treatment at CHI

Initial Assessment

Caregivers meet with one of our trained SPACE clinicians to review the child’s eating patterns, sensory concerns, medical or nutritional implications, and the family’s current strategies. We identify accommodations, avoidance patterns, and primary goals.

Ongoing Parent Sessions

Parents attend weekly sessions without the child present. During these sessions, caregivers learn and practice:

Supportive communication
Reducing specific accommodations
Structuring mealtime routines
Managing distress or resistance
Celebrating small steps in flexibility

Clinicians offer tailored guidance based on each family’s needs and dynamics.

Collaboration With CHI Specialists

When clinically appropriate, families may also work with a:

Dietitian for nutritional adequacy and growth monitoring
Feeding specialist for sensory-based guidance
Psychologist for co-occurring psychological concerns present for the child such as anxiety or OCD.

Families receive a cohesive, integrated plan that supports both emotional and nutritional well-being.

Is SPACE for ARFID Right for My Family?

SPACE for ARFID may be a good fit if:

Your child experiences intense anxiety or distress around eating
Meals have become conflictual, tense, or highly structured
Food variety is significantly limited
Family adjustments (e.g., separate meals, special preparations) have increased over time
Your child is hesitant or unwilling to participate in traditional therapy
You want an effective treatment that does not rely on child readiness

SPACE allows caregivers to make progress even when a child feels overwhelmed by direct therapeutic involvement.

Our Commitment at CHI

At Compassionate Healing Institute, we understand that ARFID affects the entire family system. Our clinicians provide compassionate, evidence-based treatment to help caregivers feel empowered, confident, and hopeful. Through SPACE for ARFID, families gain practical tools and learn strategies that encourage growth, reduce anxiety, and restore calmer mealtimes.