Dr. Dale Atkins of Greenwich is known for many things in her professional life. She is a licensed psychologist, educator, lecturer, as well as a regular on NBC’s Today Show for 22 years and CNN speaking about families, wellness, managing stress and living a balanced and meaningful life. During her more than 40 years as a practicing psychologist she has also written some books that reflect both her expertise on family life and her own personal experiences.
In the past year, she has added children’s book author to her resume with the debut of “The Turquoise Butterfly” (Mascot Kids! An imprint of Amplify Publishing) and followed that up with another book called “Dear Deer” (Mascot Books, due out June 2, 2026). Both books were inspired by real experiences with her granddaughter and an incident regarding a deer. She tells Westfair Business Journal the reason for venturing into children’s literature after writing seven professional books on families and relationships – “The Kindness Advantage”; “Sanity Savers”; “I’m Ok, You’re My Parents”; “Sisters”; “From the Heart”; “Wedding Sanity Savers”; Families and their Hearing-Impaired Children.”
Simply put, Dale said she really wanted to write something that celebrates the ability of older people and younger people to have very meaningful relationships.
Atkins has a private psychology practice in New York City and has been a member of and an advisor to several nonprofit boards, including Jumpstart for Young Children. She holds a BS in social studies from NYI, an MA in special education (deafness) from Columbia University’s Teachers College and a Ph.D. from UCLA in educational psychology.
- Tell me about your career as a psychologist. What inspired you to become one?
“My career as a psychologist started as a career as teacher in special education. I was working with a population of children who had hearing losses. And so, I got my masters in what was then called education of the deaf. I worked with children who had all kinds of disabilities, mostly with children with hearing losses and language impairment. Mostly, I had worked in different parts of the world. I really loved working with families. You needed to have a lot of experience in order to be assigned families.
There was a fellowship that was offered in California, which I took. I had been working in New York and in Israel. I took that fellowship at the John Tracy Clinic in Los Angeles, which was for families of very young preschool deaf children. It was named after John Tracy, who was (actor) Spencer Tracy’s son. Their son was profoundly deaf. The Tracys were very good friends with Walt Disney and a lot of what we call the old-time actors. They built this place, which was a place to educate parents and families together.
That’s where I was given the privilege of working with the great psychologist Dr. Althea Smith. She encouraged me, inspired me and mentored me. I ran parent groups. My dissertation was in the area of siblings. For my dissertation, I needed to have a control group for siblings with children who had disabilities and siblings who didn’t have children with disabilities.
I started doing these seminars all over the country on sisters’ relationships. This was so fascinating to me. And then people started asking me if I had a book (on the topic). I said, no, I don’t have a book. I said I should have a book. By that time, I started doing television and started doing interviews on different kinds of media.”
- You wound up on the Today Show at some point.
“Exactly. What happened was one of the very first shows I was on the Cable Health Network. Then I wound up writing a book.”
- What was the book called?
The book was called “Sisters.” You want to know something? I pitched a show to a network about sisters. They told me no one would be interested in a show about sisters. Five years later, there was a show about sisters (NBC, 1991-1996).
- What was the first book you wrote?
“The very first one was this one, “Families and Their Hearing Impaired Children.” That was a book I edited and contributed to. The next one was “Sisters: A Practical Helpful Exploration of the Intimate and Complex Bond Between Female Siblings.” It was printed by Arbor House in 1984.
That really launched my television career when I appeared on the Phil Donahue Show, then I was on Oprah, then Montel (Williams) and Sally Jesse Raphael. The reason I was on the Today Show so many years later was that one of the producers on Sally Jesse Raphael had moved to the Today Show. She gave my name to someone on the topic of how to tell your children you lost your job. Serendipitously, I was writing an article on just that topic. That jumpstarted my career because I was on television giving advice.”
- How many books have you published?
“I wound up writing a book with a friend called “Wedding Sanity Savers” because I had a column and I took all those letters and wrote that. Before that I wrote “I’m OK, You’re My Parents” because I saw how many people had estranged relationships with their parents and then they had to take care of them. I thought we needed something about how to mend the relationships with our parents before we are in the situation of taking care of them.
Now that I’m a grandmother, I wanted to write books for parents and grandparents about changes in life and helping children adapt to what’s going on in the world with so much anxiety and addictions to devices.”
- I realize now as we talk that the books you have written have reflected your life and where you are going?
“It’s a reflection of my life and a reflection of what people bring into my office and what I see around me in communities when I see people not being helpful. When I see people being so anxious and concerned about things and how do they get the support. I really wanted to celebrate the ability of older people and younger people to have very meaningful relationships. I wanted them to really connect and to understand that so much of that connection is based on shared experiences and stories. We need that connection more than ever.”
- What was your inspiration for The Turquoise Butterfly?
“The idea for The Turquoise Butterfly came from my mother, Sylvia Atkins. The main character in the book is Grandma Sylvia. She died six years ago.”
- So, how did The Turquoise Butterfly come about?
“I had a grandchild who when she was much younger was anxious and a bit hesitant but a bit curious. She was risk averse. I treated children like that my whole career. She and I have had the girls of summer week-long trip for five years. I wanted to honor my mother. It’s set in places where she was and all of the adventures in the book are all the adventures she had with her grandchildren. The evolution of this child who is so anxious with a patient grandmother who is a role model who loved butterflies.”
- How did you go about making into a children’s book with illustrations?
“I asked a friend of mine who was an editor. She said this is very long. This is 4,000 words. It has to be 750. I said, ‘Oh my God.’ She said (not to worry because) you’re going to get an illustrator and the illustrations will tell a lot of the story. It changed a lot, but it was still the same story. (Amelina Jones was the illustrator for both of Atkins’ children’s books.)”
