CA Publishing
Catherine Asta Publishing was born in 2026 from the decision to independently publish my second book, ‘Still Living’, which was published April 2026 through my own imprint.
I made that decision because I needed a process that was gentle; one without external pressure, deadlines or imposed expectations. I needed to write my story in the way it revealed itself on the page and I needed full agency over the narrative.
‘Still Living’ is my truth and my vulnerability is laid open and bare within its pages.
It is a space I have claimed for myself, without waiting for permission or commission, just as I have created space for countless others over the last decade, so that this part of my story can be heard.
CA Publishing exists so that stories that are deeply human always have somewhere to belong. Especially when traditional publishing processes are often inaccessible to many disabled and chronically ill writers.
Author Bio
Catherine is a psychotherapist and writer whose work brings a neurodivergent, compassionate and embodied perspective to questions of healing, loss and identity. She weaves psychological insight with nature-rooted wisdom and somatic knowing.
She is the host of ‘The Late Discovered Club’, the number one ranked podcast for late-identified autistic women, as well as the NHS-funded ‘Autism Central’ podcast. Her bestselling book ‘Rediscovered’ is currently being translated internationally, with her memoir ‘Still Living’ published in April 2026.
A two-time breast cancer survivor, she lives on the edge of the moors in Ilkley, Yorkshire in the UK where the landscape inspires and informs her creative work.
Still Living: Rewilding the Self After the Climb
“I am in love with this book…get ready for a life changing read.” Dr Emma Offord
“Full of soul stirring gifts for all readers.” Dr Jenny Turner
After a life-altering rupture, what comes next? This is not a story of being fixed, but a tender, nature-rooted companion to beginning again. A luminous memoir of navigating cancer and chronic illness, it offers a new language for life beyond survival – an invitation to rewild the self and honour who you are still becoming.
For those asking what happens after the metaphorical climb?
When the summit has been reached but the landscape of your life is now unrecognisable?
Packed full of reflections, wisdom and generous insights as well as practical exercises to support your own unique climb – it’s a radically honest story of the mountains we never choose to climb and what it means to find our way home to ourselves in the aftermath.
Through the guiding metaphor of a mountain, Asta traces her intimate journey through breast cancer, chronic illness, ME and identity rupture – from a trauma-aware and neurodivergent perspective. Rooted in a nature-based and embodied lens, Still Living explores what healing can look like when life has been irrevocably changed and rearranged.
This is not a story about being ‘fixed’ or restored. It is a story about the slow cultivation of a new ecosystem of self in altered ground. A remembering that we carry within us the embodied intelligence to begin again – even in the harshest terrain.
Deeply compassionate, Still Living offers strength, solace and a new language for life beyond survival. An invitation to rewild the self not by returning to who we once were, but by honouring who we are still becoming.
Published April 2026, CA Publishing.
Available in paperback and Ebook
What people say about the book:
“Reading this book felt like entering a profound and intimate portal into the landscape of Catherine’s soul. It is a raw insight into living with cancer and chronic illness, in the context of neurodivergence and motherhood. Despite the harsh terrain on her metaphorical mountain, Catherine writes with tender compassion that gently invites the reader into reflections on their journey with their own mountain.” ~ Dr Becky Quicke, Clinical Psychologist
“I am in love with this book. Still Living offers a deeply embodied and uncompromisingly honest account of what it means to continue after life has fundamentally changed. This is not a story of recovery in the traditional sense, but of reorientation, of learning to live inside a body and a life that no longer follow familiar rules. Catherine Asta writes from within complexity, not above it, bringing a trauma-aware and neurodivergent perspective that resists simplification and challenges dominant narratives of healing. A thoughtful and resonant contribution to conversations that urgently need broadening beyond the medical model. Get ready for a life changing read.” ~ Dr Emma Offord, Clinical Psychologist
“Still Living feels raw and real, a siren cry of solidarity to all those in the hinterlands of ‘recovery’, when the world cheers as you summit and then walks away ignoring the fact you now have to make your perilous way down. As someone who also walks with chronic illness, reading this felt like holding hands with the dearest friend and facing it all together. I found my eyes filling at the depths of the unity I felt as if being truly seen in the reality of chronic illness together. This book is essential reading for anyone on their own mountain climbs through life or for all those supporting chronically ill folk.” ~ Lucy Baena, Writer
“Still Living is one of those books that meets you somewhere most writing doesn’t reach. Catherine Asta writes about breast cancer, chronic illness and ME through a deeply embodied, nervous system-aware lens that felt immediately familiar to me as both a clinician and a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman. She doesn’t pathologise her sensitivity or her body’s responses. She honours them. The way she writes about somatic knowing, about the body signalling long before the mind catches up, is both clinically astute and profoundly human. For anyone who has spent a lifetime being told they feel too much, this book quietly and firmly says otherwise. It is not a recovery narrative. It is something much rarer: an honest account of what it means to land somewhere entirely new after a life-altering climb, and to begin learning how to live there.” ~ Alice Bramhill, Psychotherapist and Author
“Still Living is a wonderful gift of a book. This book is not only for those with breast cancer or ME. In Still Living, Catherine answers this broader, and rarely addressed question: How do we make sense of our self, of our life, of our future, when a life-shock we did not ask for, or plan for, changes the landscape of our lives completely? Whether we have experienced breast cancer or ME, or not, we can all see ourselves in the pages of Still Living, because it is a near-universal experience, to have experienced life-changing events, which were so impactful, that we could never go back to who we were, and how we lived, before. Readers who are women, neurodivergent, and/or mothers will feel particularly seen within the pages of Still Living, but this is a book that contains many soul-stirring gifts for all readers.” ~ Dr Jenny Turner, Clinical Psychologist.
Rediscovered
In February 2025 my first best selling book ‘Rediscovered : A Compassionate and Courageous Guide for Late Discovered Autistic Women (and their allies)’ was published by JKP. ‘Rediscovered’ is currently being translated in to Dutch and will be published later this year by the publisher ‘Uitgeverij AnkhHermes.’
Part memoir, part guide, part narrative non-fiction – the book weaves my deeply personal late discovery story with the lived experiences of over 100 autistic women spanning seven decades, while offering therapeutic insight, practical tools and a powerful cultural critique of the systems that continue to overlook autistic women.
This isn’t just a book for women – it’s a handbook for everyone ready to co-create a more compassionate and inclusive future.
What Rediscovered Offers:
- The emotional landscape of post-discovery: unmasking, grief, self-compassion.
- The vital importance of strengths-based, autism-affirming support.
- Lived experiences from over 100 autistic women across seven decades.
- A trauma-informed lens on identity, our sensory and emotional worlds, health, relationships, and work.
- A blueprint for allyship, and a roadmap for societal change.
This book is identity-affirming, therapeutically grounded, and deeply humanizing, challenging outdated narratives and offering a vision for what truly inclusive understanding can look like.
What people say about the book:
“Thoughtful, insightful and compassionate. Packed with the latest research, this book skilfully combines evidence with practical tips and personal insights. It will help so many people discover or rediscover who they are.” — Professor Rory O’Connor, University of Glasgow
“As an adult autism psychiatrist I believe “Rediscovered” is an essential handbook for autistic women and people of all ages and backgrounds. Catherine invites you alongside her in this gentle yet persuasive manifesto for rediscovering who you always were.” — Dr. Alison Lennox, Consultant Neurodevelopmental Psychiatrist
“A compelling vision and comprehensive manifesto to support generations of late discovered autistic women to live a better quality of life, allowing them to heal and thrive.” — Andrea Anderson, author of This is Who I Am
“Beautifully weaves images of loss, grief, hope and healing. Catherine joins her own voice here with others’ to create a guide and signposting for autistic women and indeed, any autistic person who has been left to rediscover themselves without role models or guidance, to a healthier future, one that includes self-understanding, self-worth, and tools for self-care.” — Dr Catriona Stewart OBE MCPP Researcher, Advisor, Founder SWAN
“Full of important information for those of us who want to be re-discovered and heal as well for those of us who want to neurodiversity informed, kind and accountable professionals, friends, partners, colleagues.” — Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou, Director and Co-Strategic Lead Anna Freud’s National Autism Trainer Programme, Associate Professor University College London
Improving mental health therapies for autistic children and young people
Co-author of the best selling book by Routledge, published in 2024.
