Group Therapy
Selective Mutism Group Intensive
SM Group Intensive provides opportunity for children with SM to practice their skills in a group format during an extended period of time. Group participants are matched based on age and clinical need to offer appropriate environment for talking practice. Groups targets talking practice and development of pragmatic speech skills.
Upcoming SM Group Intensive Dates:
January 17-19, 2026 (MLK Weekend)
Late July (exact dates TBD), 2026
Selective Mutism Kids Group
SM Group provides opportunity for children with SM to practice their skills in a group format. Group participants are matched based on age and clinical need to offer appropriate environment for talking practice. Groups targets talking practice and development of pragmatic speech skills.
Groups may occur in the office or in the community, when appropriate, to meet the goals of the group and support generalization of talking gains.
Group Dates
Released to current patients in treatment for SM
Weekly on an ongoing basis in age appropriate groups.
Social Pragmatics Kids Group
Social Pragmatics Therapy Groups teaches social interaction skills through games, practice, and peer feedback in a supportive group environment. Led by our in house speech and language pathologist, kids work to master communication skills and social understanding.
Groups:
The Power of Expected: Pre-K, Kindergarten, & 1st grade students
Building Social Confidence & Connection: 4th, 5th, & 6th grade boys
Navigating a Girl’s Social World: mid-late elementary & middle school girls
Group Dates:
Winter Mini-Intensives based on age December 2025 / January 2026.
Released to current patients receiving services to target social pragmatics skill development.
Weekly on an ongoing basis in age appropriate groups.
Selective Mutism Parent Group
SM Parent Group provides parents tools, coaching, and community to support their child’s progress with selective mutism at home and in school. Content in group covers the treatment of SM and anxiety disorders to support parent intervention at home and in the community. Social pragmatic skills are also discussed to support extension of gains beyond consistent verbalizations in public.
Upcoming Group Dates:
Spring 2026
Fall 2026
SPACE: Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions
What is SPACE?
SPACE stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions and is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related problems.
SPACE was developed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Center and has been tested and found to be efficacious in randomized controlled clinical trials.
Who are space groups for? Who is the patient?
SPACE aims to treat children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although children do not have to attend SPACE sessions - they are the patients! When SPACE treatment is successful children feel less anxious and function better following treatment.
Some of the main anxiety problems treated with SPACE include:
Separation anxiety, Social anxiety, Generalized anxiety, Fears and phobias, Panic disorder and Agoraphobia, Selective mutism and Obsessive-compulsive disorder
who participates in treatment?
Parents (and other caregivers) participate in SPACE treatment sessions. In most cases the child or adolescent does not need to attend the treatment sessions.
What happens in treatment?
Parents who participate in SPACE will learn skills and tools to help their child overcome anxiety, OCD or related problems.
The treatment focuses on changes that parents can make to their own behavior, they do not need to make their child change.
The two main changes that parents learn to make in SPACE treatment are to respond more supportively to their anxious child and to reduce the accommodations they have been making to the child symptoms.
Providers at Child and Family Therapy Collective
Eleanor Ezell, LCSW, Clinical Director
Upcoming SPACE Parent Group Dates:
Spring 2026
Fall 2026