Mental Health U

Navigating Emotional Storms: The Lifeline of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Teens

• Bill Emahiser

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Ever feel like your emotions are a raging sea, and you're adrift without a paddle? Logan Bogger, a licensed professional clinical counselor, joins us to reveal the lifeline of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) for tempest-tossed teens. Through Logan's transition from aspiring law enforcement officer to a dedicated counselor, he shares how DBT's principles of emotional regulation and effective behavior strategies can anchor individuals to a more stable, fulfilling life. His stories showcase the incredible transformations that occur when teens are empowered with the tools to navigate their emotional currents and build resilience against life's storms.

As we unpack the intricacies of DBT with Logan, you'll get a rare glimpse into the structured approach that makes this therapy so effective in quelling the emotional turmoil of adolescence. From the biosocial theory explaining the interplay between emotion and environment to the essential role of validation in therapy, our conversation covers the full spectrum of this life-changing practice. And don't miss the practical wisdom behind the TIP skill—an immediate, accessible strategy for emotional regulation that listeners can start using right away. This episode is an invaluable compass for anyone seeking to understand and harness the power of DBT for a more balanced and rewarding life journey.

Logan:

and appreciate wherever they're at in their life and also teach them the skills that they need to move forward and effectively live a life worth living, which is DBT's. Really, that's one of the primary focuses is finding a life worth living.

Bill Emahiser:

Hello and welcome. I'm your host, Bill Emahiser, and you're listening to Mental Health U, the podcast dedicated to demystifying and destigmatizing mental health issues. So if you or someone you know is struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma or some other mental health issue, then this podcast is for you. This episode is proudly sponsored by Unison Health, dedicated to making lives better through compassionate, quality mental health and addiction treatment services. Learn more at unisonhealthorg. On today's show, we chat with Logan Baugher, a dedicated licensed professional clinical counselor specializing in empowering teens to navigate the complexities of their emotions. As a teen mood management group facilitator, Logan brings a wealth of expertise in dialectical behavioral therapy, helping his clients make their lives better by guiding them through emotional regulation and practical coping skills. Today, Logan shines light on the transformative power of DBT. Welcome, Logan, Thank you for being on the show.

Logan:

Hi Bill, thank you. I appreciate so much that I'm able to do this show and this opportunity. I'm looking forward to talking about it.

Bill Emahiser:

Well, I'm excited as well, and before we get going on DBT and on your group to help folks that are struggling with mood management, can you tell us a little bit about your professional journey? What led you to become a licensed professional counselor?

Logan:

Yeah, absolutely so. When I think about my journey, unfortunately I have to start in high school. It's not a long, super long story, but in high school I always knew I wanted to help others. I was doing community service projects and I was like this is something along this line that I really wanna pursue. And, funny enough, that led me to criminal justice and going for my undergrad at Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne and I thought I can help people with criminal justice degree by becoming a cop. And that was my path originally. High school undergrad was let's do this, this is my way of helping. And through that process, through going through school, I finished that degree in undergrad, graduated with criminal justice.

Logan:

And it was in that senior year, that final year, that I did a little bit of reflecting and I was doing an internship with the Indiana State Police at that time. I was doing ride-alongs with them and I was seeing the life of a cop in that role, at least as a trooper, and it really opened up my eyes and I reflected and I was like I don't think that's what I wanna do, that's not how I want to help others. And there was a specific moment too in the media the George Floyd incident. That incident was very eye-opening for me too and it really it made me consider is that the route that I want to do? So when that incident happened I was doing the ride-alongs.

Logan:

Then I was like I had some psychology minor classes along the way and I really enjoyed those classes and learning a little bit about the mind and how human behavior in general, and I enjoyed those classes and that's what led me to counseling. I went to BGSU, got my master's in clinical mental health counseling and that's what led me to becoming a licensed professional counselor, now specifically for teens. As I was going through school, I worked in a residential unit and that residential unit was primarily focused around kids five to 17. They would come, they would live there for a short term and they were going through a lot. And that experience while I was in school is kind of naturally what led me to DBT, led me to working with teens, working with kids that you know there's. There's lots of struggles in their life, there's things that they might not be able to control, and that's where I want to step in and that's where I want to help.

Bill Emahiser:

That's great and for our listeners. You've mentioned DBT. I've mentioned it a few times. Some folks may not be familiar with with what DBT is. Could you give us an overview of dialectical behavioral therapy and how it might differ from other therapeutic approaches?

Logan:

Yeah, so dialectical behavioral therapy I like to think of it as an offshoot of cognitive behavioral therapy. Another very well-known, very used evidence-based treatment within therapy is CBT and DBT, and DBT the one that we're talking about really stems off of that. It's an offshoot. It works with, with Cognitions, with the way that we're thinking. It's similar, but there's more of an emphasis in DBT on emotions, on Validating the experience. Being in the here, in the now is a very important element of DBT and, and with that it focuses on learning skills to replace the ineffective behaviors with effective, helpful behaviors. That is, that is the core of it finding helpful Skills that are gonna help us in our life.

Bill Emahiser:

I'm assuming that this is not like a, what a lot of people think of as a talk therapy, that you just sit down, I come to a group or I come for 50 minutes to an individual session and then I don't have to do anything else. Am I wrong about that? Is there there's? There's something more. When I see behavior, I suspect there's probably some homework that comes along with with this and there's some practice that people need to do For this to be effective.

Logan:

Yes, yes, you, you actually nailed it with with that. It's very structured in in how we structure the the time together. It isn't like we come in and and we just talk there's a lot, there's a lot of structure. Sometimes it feels almost like a classroom setting. I really try the to break that down and so it's not as much of a classroom setting with the kids that I'm working with. However, there there is a, there's a core of learning and you know teaching a specific skill and then we're gonna use that skill in the session and then we're gonna practice that skill outside of the session.

Bill Emahiser:

What makes dbt particularly effective for individuals, especially teenagers, who experience sudden mood changes?

Logan:

dbt- is effective with Sudden mood changes because there is such an emphasis on learning skills to help manage complex and difficult emotions.

Logan:

I Also think that the guiding biosocial theory behind dbt applies to many teenagers that struggle with emotional regulation. The biosocial theory says that many people struggle with sensitive and intense emotions, and Important people in their life tend to not validate or support them in those moments and when we have that, that environment that's invalidating, that's not supportive of these intense, complex emotions. That's where we struggle. And so with teens, there's a lot of teens that experience Invalidating environments or they experience for themselves a lot of emotions, complex emotions, that they're not sure how to, how to handle, how to cope with that, and so this relationship between those is what DBT stems from. So having that insight, that awareness, teaching that to the kids, along with the therapist leading it, understanding that the approaches we need to validate, we need to be present in this moment, meet them where they're at, and that is so important in DBT and, I think, in general with therapy, but DBT too, in that validation is that's a core element of DBT and the importance of effectively learning the skills we have to validate.

Bill Emahiser:

When you talk about validation, right, we're sometimes we're in an environment where we may not get that validation. Does DBT put an emphasis on that relationship?

Logan:

Oh, absolutely Absolutely. That is fundamental that we have a relationship, that the teens can come into the session, they can feel comfortable, they can feel welcomed and we can have a connection between me and them, and then I can also have a connection with them and their guardian. And having a full relationship with everyone involved I find to be very effective. That's how we stay engaged, that's how we believe in change is when we have this relationship and that we can trust each other. I'm going to trust that I'm going to give you things. I have to trust that they take that and apply it to the outside of therapy and they have to trust that I'm going to come and welcome them and appreciate wherever they're at in their life and also teach them the skills that they need to move forward and effectively live a life worth living, which is DBT's. Really, that's one of the primary focuses is finding a life worth living.

Bill Emahiser:

Mental Health? U is brought to you by Unison Health. Unison Health, making lives better. Let's say I'm a teen. I know I'm a long ways off from being a teen and I was struggling with dysregulated mood, these mood swings having difficulties in my relationships. And I came to your group. What could I expect? I mean, what does a typical group look like?

Logan:

Great question. So DBT has four to five I kind of add a fifth that's important in their themes, primary themes to DBT. So we work with mindfulness, we work with emotions, stress, relationships, and the fifth one that I tend to add is this idea of dialectics, finding a balance and everything. And so, using those themes, each week we focus on a different theme for that week. So we might have, you know, the first week we might primarily focus on mindfulness and learning very, very helpful skills that help us to be mindful as far as like deep breathing, guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, doing things in the session that help us to learn mindfulness Right. And then the next week we're going to focus on emotions and focusing on distress tolerance. And how do I manage when these big emotions come? So the the primary structure is we come, we, we do some sort of activity together to kind of get us started. I like to start with an icebreaker or something to get us warmed up, or we might do a mindfulness activity right off the bat. We just might take five minutes and do Do a guided imagery, or we. I like to make it fun and so we're not all sitting in a circle, because I think mindfulness has this idea that we're all gonna sit and we're just gonna Hum. That's not. That's not mindfulness. There's aspects of that. That is mindfulness and is very helpful. But really mindfulness can be Any time of the day, just taking a moment to really reflect on, observing, describing your environment, being aware of your senses. What are you hearing, what are you seeing, what are you smelling, using all the, all your senses. So finding a way to incorporate that in the first five minutes or so of the of the group session.

Logan:

Okay, then, after we do that, I'm gonna introduce the topic for the night, whatever that theme is, whatever that specific skill is that we're gonna learn. We're gonna talk about it, brainstorm it, talk Related about it, all the things. Then we're gonna practice a skill, be very interactive with it. Okay, so we've talked about it, now let's do it. Let's practice. How do we do this in session together? Nice, then we will have a little break. Then we'll have Another introduction of another topic, another skill for that same theme, same theme, different skill. So they're gonna learn one, the two skills each night, depending on our time and sure and how things go. I like to. If we can do two, let's do two, and so we have a skill, we practice it. We take that break. We learn a skill, we practice it then at the end. Okay, now we have some homework. I want you to practice this skill or this piece of that skill by the time I see you next week. We'll review it and then do our mindfulness and that's kind of the process each week.

Bill Emahiser:

What are some of the outcomes I could expect? I've done the group. I'm completing it. What's that look like?

Logan:

I think one of the one of the biggest that I've experienced Insight I think that's one of the biggest things that I've seen some clients leave with is a level of insight into you know what, what has been happening in their life that has been really stressful and how have they been dealing with it.

Logan:

And then learning, okay, there are different ways and and leaving with tangible skills, actual things that they can use in their life, not just this concept or abstract, but actual skills that they can use and implement into their life so that that's adding to their toolbox of tools, so that they can pull it out later. A couple weeks ago, we learned a mindfulness skill to be really present, and in the moment I'm going to pull that out of my toolbox, when I'm feeling really upset and I'm just everywhere and my mind is not in the moment, not present. I'm thinking about the future, I'm really worried about things coming up, I'm really stressed, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm going to take a second and I'm going to think back to that mindfulness activity that we did and we just sat there for one minute and we described the environment. I'm going to take a second and I'm going to do that and maybe I do a couple deep breaths as I'm doing it, and my hope is that they would take that skill and apply it to when it happens in the moment.

Bill Emahiser:

Speaking of skills, I want to jump ahead of here a little bit and talk about some of those specific you mentioned mindfulness strategies of sitting in the moment. If you could, I'm just pretending that we're talking to a group of folks, that maybe they're struggling with some mood swings or some really powerful emotions. What are maybe one or two coping skills that you could give to a listener of this podcast that they could actually go out and utilize today?

Logan:

Yeah, absolutely. I think if I'm trying to pick out a specific skill that I find to be really helpful, very, very practical would be the tip skill. In DBT there's a lot of acronyms and all these acronyms really help with applying them and trying to remember them when things come up For tip. The idea is each letter stands for something. The T is temperature. So changing your temperature, changing the environment with the best that you can, any way that you can change your temperature in that moment, that really helps with emotional regulation skills. Tip is all about emotion regulation. Distrust, tolerance. Really bringing us to a better state in that moment might help us calm down. So the first thing, t, temperature. So if I can change my temperature to maybe I'm really heated, I need the cool off. I step outside because it's freezing outside or something.

Logan:

Or I grab an ice cube, I grab a cold drink of water and I just take a second to sip the water and allow myself to experience whatever I'm doing in that moment, being very mindful, because that's one thing. Mindfulness applies to all of these skills, by the way, they're like interwoven and being very present in that moment to change that temperature. There is also the T can be for increasing our temperature. So if we're really cold and we need to, like, arouse ourselves, get us moving and energize, maybe we're not as motivated. We need to change something. So I'm going to change the temperature to increase the heat. I'm going to go stand in front of the heater, the fireplace, I'm going to move really fast to warm myself up, something like that which that ties into one of the other letters, which is the I intense exercise.

Logan:

So changing our physical state by maybe we jump around, we do some jumping jacks, we do some push-ups, we run in place, we do something that moves us physically, that gets us energized, gets us moving, can also change how we're feeling in that moment.

Logan:

And then P is the progressive muscle relaxation that I actually mentioned earlier with mindfulness, so finding, you know, doing something as far as we tense our muscles and then we release them and we notice the change in the release. Being being very present with that process, and the best way to do it is to do it from head to toe, toe to head and and working your way through it, doing the full body. However, I think there is some benefit in doing parts of your body that feel really tense maybe my back's hurting and I. I just take a second to try that, hold it and then I release it and finding that comfortable state. So that's the tip skill using each of those as a way to help us feel better, feel calm, feel more in the moment, and I like those skills, yeah, and I like how that it can be.

Bill Emahiser:

Most of those things that you mentioned can be done just about anywhere. Some of those you know, some of the ideas, the, the strategies there and it doesn't sound like it would take a lot of time either. You know, like holding on to an ice cube, for instance, or taking a cold sip of water. Somebody may not even realize that you're having these big emotions and you might be able to regulate yourself if you're, if you're a teen and you're in a classroom. I think most days now, when I was old or back in the old days I am old back in the old days when I was going to school, you couldn't have drinks and things like that. Some schools I know I like it have a water bottle or whatever and you can actually utilize that skill right there in the classroom if you're experiencing some intense emotions.

Bill Emahiser:

I love. I love the practicality of dbt and how it can help folks really. And emotions we all experience big emotions from time to time. I think that obviously for teens kind of that developmental stage good to see a lot of benefit from folks coming to your group, which kind of leads me to ask if people are interested in learning more about your group or getting a referral or just learning more information about resources on dbt. Where can folks go?

Logan:

yeah, so we can go there's. There's a couple options. We could go to the website so you could go to unisonhealthorg. Forward slash teen dbt. You could check out the website. The website's gonna have the general overview of what we've talked about today. It's gonna provide some, some logistical information. It's also gonna have my number and my email on there. So if you go to that, then you'll be able to see my number and my email so you could reach out to me, contact me with any questions, any. Hey, I'm interested. I just want to learn more. We can talk and I can help you work through it. Also, I'll just say my number on here for folks so that way you don't have to go to the the website if you don't want to. My number is 419-936-7491 and then if you want to email me, it's Logan or L sorry, lbogger at unisonorg. And again, that information is on the website so you can pull it up well.

Bill Emahiser:

Thank you, logan, for sharing your knowledge. Your expertise in dialectical behavioral therapy and your commitment to guiding teens through mood management is commendable. You're truly making lives better to our listeners. I hope we delivered some value to you. Remember to be kind to yourself, be kind to others and until next time, have a super fantastic day. This podcast has been brought to you by unison health. Unison health is a nonprofit mental health agency dedicated to serving the Northwest Ohio community for the past 50 years.