HER FACE OF AUTISM

Psychotherapist and sex therapist Labine draws on her clinical insight and lived experience to illuminate the unseen lives of autistic women.

This book serves as a guide for women diagnosed with autism later in life, who’ve spent years navigating confusion and isolation without a clear explanation for it. As a psychotherapist, the author blends research, personal reflection, and case vignettes to outline the signs and symptoms of autism. Specifically, it addresses how it may manifest in women, offering tools for self-recognition and coping. She educates her readers on common misconceptions and examines the social politics that contribute to delayed diagnosis, including the infantilization of autistic individuals and the cultural pressure to “mask.” The result is a comprehensive, accessible, and empathetic resource. Formally, though, the book reads more like a methodical manual than a narrative. The author alternates between anecdotal vignettes, lists, reflective exercises, self-assessment checklists, and journal prompts, and the care she takes in defining terminology and addressing her audience’s sensitivities is admirable. However, the guide format sometimes makes the prose feel constrained, and the repetition of her powerful central message—that a lack of diagnosis in women can lead to alienation and exhaustion—dulls its force over time. The most resonant moments in the book occur when the author steps away from the how-to structure to instruct through storytelling, particularly when connecting her own experience of diagnosis or sharing the many stories of women who never had a vocabulary to assign to their loneliness. These vignettes give the book texture and heart, transforming theory into personal experience.

A hopeful, affirming resource that educates with compassion, despite the narrative limitations of its format.