Behind Closed Doors is a practical guide for parents guiding their tweens and teens through cultural change and modern-day health threats. Jessica Peck, a pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, helps parents escape the secrecy and shame surrounding challenging moments and find freedom in honest conversations grounded in faith in Christ.
There are many jokes about the difficulties of raising a teenager, but beneath these jokes parents are hurting and feeling helpless while their teens are navigating extraordinary cultural challenges unlike anything faced by previous generations. Teens are feeling more isolated, anxious, and depressed. But how can we help them effectively navigate social challenges when we don't have the social skills to communicate authentically with dignity and compassion? How do we create safe spaces in a seemingly unsafe world?
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, so they don't have to face these challenges alone.
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 parents assess their teen's emotional, physical, and spiritual health, and to ultimately help them strengthen their connection with their kids. She has divided her book into three sections:
- Behind the Clinic Door: professional advice for parents on tough teenage issues from a health impact lens, sharing true stories of patients.
- Behind the Home Door: suggested settings, activities, and question prompts to give parents conversation keys to unlock doors for open dialogue with their teens on tough issues and meet them at their point of need.
- Behind the Heart Door: a time of reflection and spiritual application for parents to explore devotional readings, relevant Bible verses, Scripture-based prayers for parents, themed Christian music playlists, and prompts to write 12 Legacy Letters, a generational keepsake for teens.
Jessica shares her personal story of broken family relationships, challenges she's faced raising her teens without guidance from her own parents, and lessons learned along the way—personal and professional; good and bad; mundane and miraculous. Covering topics including mental health, social media, suicide, sexting, substance abuse, gender identity, 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.
