Behind Closed Doors: A Guide to Help Parents and Teens Navigate Through Life’s Toughest Issues

Believe it or not, your kids WANT to talk to you about the social and health challenges they’re facing. But are you ready? Jessica Peck, a pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, helps parents escape the secrecy and shame surrounding tough conversations and approach them from a Christian foundation.

Today’s teens are feeling more isolated, anxious, and depressed than previous generations, and are struggling with more complex challenges. Jessica Peck (DNP, APRN) has spent countless hours advising and encouraging parents after talking to their teens behind closed doors. In the privacy of her exam room, she has treated teens with mental illnesses, responded to suicide attempts, treated self-harm wounds as well as the emotional trauma of cyberbullying, sexting, pornography addictions, and numerous other issues. Through it all, Jessica found that teens really want to talk to their parents but don’t know how.

Jessica seeks to move the private conversations that happen in the clinic to relationship-building conversations at home. Behind Closed Doors is a guided lifeline to help you strengthen your connection with your kids. You will be able to:

• Get professional advice on tough teenage issues from a medical perspective, as well as the true stories of patients
• Discover suggested settings, activities, and question prompts to give you conversation keys to unlock doors for open dialogue on tough issues with your teens
• Share a time of reflection with devotional readings, relevant Bible verses, Scripture-based prayers, themed music playlists, and more
• Prompts to write 12 Legacy Letters: a generational keepsake for teens

Covering topics including mental health, social media, suicide, sexting, gender identity, substance abuse (with a chapter focusing on vaping), and more, Jessica Peck's book will encourage and strengthen all parents—married, single, or divorced; grandparents, stepparents, godparents, bonus parents, adopted parents—anyone who is serving a parental role in a teen's life.

Jessica Peck has been a pediatric nurse practitioner for nearly twenty years. A native Texan, she has a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree (DPN) and is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN). She is a clinical professor at the Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing as well as president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Most importantly, she has been happily married to a rocket scientist for over twenty-three years and is a mom of three teens and one tween.

A passionate advocate for vulnerable children and anti-trafficking, Jessica equips families to promote physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual health. She especially loves encouraging moms in her clinical practice and equipping them to build healthy relationships with their children. She speaks to nurses all over the world while also reaching out to more moms so they feel engaged, equipped, encouraged, and empowered to raise resilient, holistically healthy kids.

She is an accomplished author of dozens of clinical articles for peer-reviewed journals, is a regular contributor for parenting magazines, and is a frequent guest on radio and television shows to promote the health of children. She is a regular guest on The Nurse Practitioner Show on Sirius XM's Doctor Radio and has also appeared on syndicates for CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox.