Ami Atkinson, Director of IPNDC,is co-author of the audiobook Taking Power Struggle Out of Parenting. As Sharon Strand Ellison's daughter, she has been an active participant in the discussion and development of Powerful Non-Defensive Communication from an early age. Together, they often co-facilitate conference presentations and workshops.

A graduate of Mills College, Ami has done psychosocial research at Stanford University Medical School, including data collection and follow-up for Drs. David Spiegel and Catherine Classen on support groups for breast cancer patients.  Ami was also Interim Manager of the Stanford Child and Adolescent Division of Psychiatry and has worked with emotionally disturbed children at Lincoln Center in Oakland, CA.

After her twin boys were born ten weeks early, they remained in the hospital for nearly two months.  This inspired Ami to later become a member of Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital's Newborn and Parent Advisory Board where she worked as a Parent Mentor to families experiencing or anticipating a pre-term birth, and was a major contributor for their Guide for Preemie Parents. In addition, she was featured in A Preemie Needs His Mother, an educational film about breastfeeding.

In her work, Ami is exceptionally skilled at helping parents identify and change specific family patterns that are the root cause of various kinds of conflict and stress, including tantrums, argument, defiance, low self-esteem, and resistance to participation in required activities such as chores and homework. She can do interventions and help parents and children or teens to shift from defensive reactions to more productive ways of diffusing power struggle.  Ami shows parents how to create boundaries that are firm, yet nurturing, prompting children and teens to become more respectful, competent and reciprocal. She also guides parents in learning how to ask kids questions that draw out their thoughts, feelings and beliefs in ways that allow the child's own personality to be more fully expressed. She offers parents a system for giving feedback that avoids lecturing and prompts young people to be much more likely to want to listen. Finally, she provides tools that help parents to state their own thoughts, feelings and beliefs, so that instead of trying to convince kids to listen, they can have the kind of conversation that is engaging and fulfilling to both adult and child. The skills Ami teaches offer a foundation for creating a family life that is open, honest, and loving, while being real and spontaneous.

Ami is astute and persistent in facilitating parents' ability to gain greater success in helping children with various kinds of special needs, such as ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome, to function at higher levels of competence and with greater social skills. She offers conference presentations and public workshops for parents, as well as being a coach for She works in person with parents and/or parents and children together, and also offers phone consultations nationally and internationally, parents and/or whole families.

Ami applies her understanding of systemic patterns of communication to her work with organizations, as well, helping teams and the larger organization as a whole to strengthen their communication internally and with their client base. Along with co-faciliating conference presentations and workshops with Sharon Strand Ellison, Ami offers trainings for educational institutions, nonprofits, corporations, and community organizations.

Partial Client List:

Ami's client list includes General Dynamics, CA; Habitat for Humanity, CA; the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Toronto, Canada; Chemeketa Community College, Early Childhood Education Department, OR; Head Start, OR; The Association for Early Childhood Education, National Conference, Lane Community College, OR; Collaborative Practice Professionals, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, and CCG Systems, VA.

The Institute for Powerful Non-Defensive Communication
Phone: 800-714-7334 or 510-655-8086 • Email: info@pndc.com
Powerful Non-Defensive Communication is a trademarked name. © 1994-2009 Sharon Strand Ellison