I’m Claire, an AuDHDer, social worker, therapist, researcher, writer, disability justice advocate, and theorist developing new ways to understand how neurodivergence and family trauma intersect—especially when autism goes unrecognized across generations.

For years, I’ve observed the same pattern: families caught in painful dynamics—scapegoating, emotional neglect, controlling behavior, attachment wounds, cycles of shame—without a clear explanation.

Much of the time, these families had histories of substance use, attachment trauma, mental illness, or rigid expectations, as well as one or more diagnosed autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD children and/or late-identified autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD adult children.

But the deeper root often went unnamed: unidentified or masked neurodivergence among the larger family system, particularly autism.

That missing piece matters. When autism is present but not recognized, families don’t just misunderstand each other—they often turn on themselves. Traits get labeled as manipulative, dramatic, lazy, or defiant, and generations of people end up internalizing shame for who they are, not what they’ve done.

Unmasked Lineage is where I put language to these patterns.

I’m currently developing conceptual frameworks to help explain what I’ve seen and experienced clinically, personally, and culturally. These ideas are still growing, but my hope is they will help others in the neurodivergent community feel less alone, more integrated, and more able to make sense of the dynamics they grew up in or continue to experience.

This project is for anyone trying to understand how unidentified autism and neurodivergence, ableism, and trauma shape families—not just individuals. It’s for people who’ve felt invisible in traditional mental health spaces, and who want new language for what they’ve lived through.

If that resonates with you, you’re in exactly the right place.