Teen Mental Health, Parenting, and Family Support | Turning Winds Podcast
The Turning Winds Podcast explores teen mental health, parenting, and family growth. Join us for expert advice and real stories on topics like anxiety, depression, communication, and building resilience. Discover tools and insights to help teens and parents navigate challenges, strengthen relationships, and create lasting positive change.
This is what it sounds like when teens step out of their comfort zones and change lives in the process.
In this episode of the Turning Winds Podcast, host Kevin Zundl connects with Program Director Carl Baisden live from Belize. Carl offers an inside look at Turning Winds’ international service trip, where students supported a remote village school while gaining powerful lessons in connection, gratitude, and global citizenship.
From deep-sea fishing and exploring ancient Mayan ruins to hand-building a classroom for students without proper facilities, this trip was more than cultural exposure. It was transformative. Carl shares how students overcame language barriers, witnessed the realities of rural poverty, and discovered that happiness and fulfillment are not dependent on material wealth.
Whether you are a parent considering treatment for your teen or someone who believes in the value of meaningful service, this episode will leave you feeling inspired.
A Healing Philosophy · Understanding the values that shape Turning Winds’ integrative approach to treatment.
Keywords: Turning Winds, teen treatment podcast, Belize service trip, therapeutic boarding school, teen mental health, cultural immersion therapy, experiential learning, student travel abroad, service learning, gratitude and teen growth, emotional maturity in teens, academic and therapeutic support, helping troubled teens, global citizenship in treatment programs
For more teen parenting tips and treatment information | turningwinds.com | 800-845-1380.
SPEAKER_01
This is what it sounds like when you get out of your comfort zone and change the lives around you.
SPEAKER_00
It's incredible. I mean, it's it's nothing short of life-changing.
SPEAKER_01
Welcome back to the Turning Winds podcast. My name is Kevin Zundel. Turning Winds is a full continuum of care for teens who need a little more support academically and clinically. Today is a special treat. I got to speak to Carl Bazden while Turning Winds was on their international service trip to Belize. Let's get into it. Carl, I'm looking at these amazing pictures that you just sent over. How long have you been there?
SPEAKER_00
We have been here for about a week. And uh and we go home tomorrow. This is the end of our trip. And the girls are actually uh they're starting to grapple with the reality that it's coming to an end. So there's our car ride back today to it, it was about two hours from the home base to where we're at now, and there seemed to be heavy reflection and quiet in the van. I know what I was thinking about, uh like scanning my my experiences over the last week. It's just amazing the things that we've been able to experience and feel and see since we've been down here. And so we're going out with a bang. The last day we we spent the day today out on the the ocean. We we rented chartered three boats, and we spent a few hours out deep sea fishing, and we actually got taught how to fish. It's called hand reeling, it's a native traditional way to fish down here. You don't use a rod, and we were pulling up some big old beautiful ocean fish, and then we we spent the last few hours snorkeling out at the surrounding reefs. That's been a beautiful trip.
SPEAKER_01
You know, I I always love hearing the way that they're able to connect with the folks that they're usually trying to help. And there's there's always some really good stories there in terms of how they overcame a language barrier, which probably wasn't the case here. But what were some of the ways that they they found themselves interacting, developing some sort of relationship with the folks that are really kind of distant neighbors?
SPEAKER_00
Yes. So the it's interesting, the official language of Belize is English, but the the rural village that we spent our time in, not everyone spoke English. And the children in particular that we volunteered for, most of them didn't speak any English and they were trying to learn English. And so uh we weren't anticipating a language barrier, but there certainly was one. The further outside of the city you get, the more English is absent. Most people in the city speak English, but out there, yeah, it was we still had a language barrier, but it didn't slow us down, Kevin. I'm a believer that I think at times we would do good to just keep our mouth shut and not verbalize the things that we say. And I'm reminded of that on these trips and relationships, when you can't actually communicate with words, but you just communicate with smiles and body language and facial expressions. And so the kids all connected beautifully. They had these beautiful interactions. I would say, probably in the first 10 minutes of being there, my kids were spread out throughout the classroom and the kids were engaging. They were excited to know what these people were here for. What started out with high fives and fist bumps by the ends, it's hugging, holding, not letting go, shoulder rides, wrestling. I mean, it it evolves significantly throughout the week. And then we've had similar experiences to this when we left. The language that we felt was they didn't want us to leave. And people were sad. They had the realization that we weren't going to be back tomorrow. And perhaps more importantly, we had the realization we weren't going to be back tomorrow. And several of our kids emotionally really struggled letting go. And it's just always amazes me the powerful bonds and connections that we can make with people with no words. The words aren't necessary to connect and bond. You know, people can feel loved. It was cool. The language barrier was a bit of a surprise, but didn't slow us down one bit.
SPEAKER_01
And I feel like part of this is a being of service, which is important. And I think part of it is just understanding that everyone in the world doesn't live like the way that they do. Was there anything that surprised them that you were able to see?
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I mean, they all felt the poverty. They all felt that, they all saw that. The vast majority of people living in the surrounding area where we were of service lived in very small houses. Some didn't look like houses, but it was obvious people lived in them. People think of Belize and they think of money, but that's in the city and that's in the tourist areas. But out of the city, people don't have money and they they live in pretty extreme poverty. And the school, for example, that we volunteered at, the teacher was asking to try to give a Christmas celebration to the kids. She was asking the parents, there were 17 kiddos at the school. She asked all of the parents if they could donate one dollar, one dollar of Belize money, which is 50 cents in US currency. And she had five or six parents that could do it. And the rest couldn't. I mean, they couldn't, you know, scrounge together a dollar because that's an elective thing in their life, and they need everything they have to live to survive. So there was a huge gap in economics between the financial status between the city and the rural area, about two hours outside the city where we were serving. The other thing they recognize is that not having a lot of money doesn't have a direct relation to happiness. You know, the people that we served were happy people. These aren't the sad, depressed children that they show on TV commercials. These are happy children that have come from families and parents that love them. And uh they just don't have a very high economic status. And uh and that doesn't stop them from being happy. Uh if you ask me, I'm not sure that they have a large awareness of what they're missing out on because you can have a fulfilling life without having a lot of money. That's a good reminder. I would love to share some of the activities we've done with you. It's been pretty fun. So there's two parts to the trip. We we do the service, and so our schedule, we wake up, we woke up every morning about 5 45, 6 o'clock. So early mornings, every morning. We would uh get up to the home base of the common area, we'd eat breakfast, and then we'd head out straight to the service site. And every day we would work at the service site all morning until about 12:30 or one o'clock in the afternoon. At which point we would come back, we would eat lunch at the home base, uh, and at that point go out for activities. And these are cultural experiences. And so um, gosh, I wish I could tell you the name of the Mayan ruins that we went to. I'll I'll try to find those for you. But we went to this incredible, there was, I think he said there were 80,000 people estimated living at this in within this civilization. Um, it was huge. We climbed a pyramid that was 150 feet high, and it was only 30 exposed. Wow, just wild. 150 feet we climbed, they scaled this freaking pyramid to the top, and there's 70% of it wasn't even unearthed yet. And so being able to be in that spot and ask questions and contemplate what happened to these people. And and I can tell you very clearly, it's very obvious that this was an advanced civilization of people that that learned architect architecture and engineering. They had water systems and and I mean it pretty impressive. And so for the kids to see how people lived thousands of years ago, it was pretty fun uh and pretty awesome. The imagination does pretty special stuff. So we did the ruins. We did one day we did a cave. We we rode through this long cave on inner tubes, no light, caves, bats. It was kind of a cool, surreal experience where we tubed through this thing in total darkness. We had headlights, headlights on that we could turn on, but the kids loved that. That was so much fun going and seeing. They have paintings and carvings in there, and so people thousands of years ago were in those caves, and and we got to go play through them and see history right in front of us. Um, we did a traditional Belizean chocolate tour where we actually took the coca fruit and turned it into chocolate. And that was really fun. We did that all the way through. We started as a plant, took the seeds, crushed them, obliterated them, turned them into liquid, and then added the flavoring. They put spices in them. I mean, it was just an incredible experience to see like this is next level kind of chocolate. Someone took an hour to make this, you know. Uh, that was a pretty cool experience. And so when we do the evening activities, we're trying to immerse the kids in the culture in which we're serving. And every night, as they immerse themselves in the culture, they're better prepared to go back and engage with the people of that culture. And they feel a deeper connection to the people that they're serving because of the things that they're doing, the things that are relevant to their lives. Um, so it was a good balance. I mean, we worked hard. What we ended up doing for the service site, we were going to build a playground for the children because right now they have two tires to play on. That's what they have for their playground, is two tires. We received a lot of rain and there was standing water, and so we couldn't actually do that. So we had to pivot pretty last second to figure out a different project. And what we ended up doing was building the teacher a second classroom.
SPEAKER_01
Get out.
SPEAKER_00
Uh and it's just amazing. I mean, we went into this rundown space that was full of junk, and we ended up fixing it up, painting it, putting new floors in, pouring concrete, repainting all the walls, cutting out windows, installing new windows in the classroom. And so when we left, five days after we arrived, this teacher had a 20 by 20 classroom that she didn't have access to before, with windows and beautiful lighting and floors. The kids did a personalized mural. It was a floor-to-ceiling mural. Uh, they took a uh a local tree and and did this big mural of the tree, and then they did some cool Mayan artwork in the center uh of the temple, and they put the the year that Turning Winds was there in the in Mayan from the Mayan calendar. And so they actually turned out beautifully. They did a great job. And so they they left a piece of themselves there, you know, on this wall of this beautiful classroom that didn't exist before we showed up. And I hope for years and years kids will be able to say who's turning winds. The kids on the picture they wrote turning winds, and they said underneath, because they were looking at our logo, one of the kids wrote under there, Restoring Hope. And I just thought, man, how fitting is that? That is so cool. And for years and years now, kids will look at that, they'll wonder whose handprints were on that wall, and they'll wonder who turning winds was. And I hope that that teacher, years from now, will be able to let the kids know that it was a group of people that came and touched the lives of the children and enhanced their school. Um, so this work is it's it's incredible. I mean, it's it's nothing short of life-changing. And I think sometimes when we talk about that, we think that we're we're we're referring to life changing for us, and which it is in a significant way, but this was life-changing for 17 children that had nothing. Uh, and a teacher who had nothing, this beautiful woman who who volunteers her time because the government can't pay for schooling this far outside of the city. And so any supplies she needs, any classroom materials, she has to pay out of her own pocket to do that for the children. And the only reason she started this school is because when her son was young, he didn't have a place to go to school, and so she started the school, uh, just this beautiful human being that has spent the last 10 years of her life doing what we did for the last five days. You know, those people exist, they're amazing. And and to just live five days in their shoes, the people that just serve, that forget about themselves and connect with the world around them, uh, it's just such a special thing. But lives were trained, changed on this trip. Ours were, and theirs were. And uh, you know, anyone that goes through the pictures of the project and sees the things that we do will see, well, we changed lives. Like we gave them something so awesome. It was so cool. The last day we were there, this is the last thing I'd like to share with you, Kevin. We did a the children were, they knew we were leaving. A teacher wanted to do a Christmas party with us and the kids. And so the kids and the teacher um gave us these really cool handmade gifts that she and her husband made for us, each individually, which was incredibly special. And then the kids and I got to go shopping for the school, and and we loaded up two giant shopping carts full of all of the supplies and toys that we could fit in this thing and wrapped them all one night. All of the kids, we spent about two hours wrapping gifts one night for the kids. And and yesterday, our last our last day, we got to give the kids their presents. And man, how magical that was. It was really incredible. So, yeah, overall it was just an incredible trip. Beautiful.
SPEAKER_01
It sounds like it. So if you're in a situation where your teen really does need help, I want you to consider the transformative power of an experience like this. Give Turning Winds a call at 800-845-1380 or look at the wealth of resources they have available to you at turningwinds.com.
