WHAT IS AN NPE?
NPE flagged on a family tree is recognized among the genealogical community as a designation that the named parent is not the actual biological parent. NPE started out meaning Non Paternal Event, and morphed to Non Parental Event (to include females). This term is viewed as lacking the emotional impact one experiences, so it now means:
Not Parent Expected.
Catherine St Clair made the unexpected and traumatic discovery at age 55 that the father who raised her was not her biological father. Raised as the youngest child in a traditional, conservative household in central Arkansas, heavily influenced by religious teachings, by parents who were married for 51 years, Catherine found herself in a position of loss. Since both parents – and her newly discovered biological father – had died years before, she would never be able to know her full origin story. Their secrets almost completely died with them, had it not been for the innovation of home DNA testing. She experienced profound grief. She grieved for her Dad, who died all over again for her. She grieved for the biological father she never had the opportunity to know while he was alive. Mostly, she grieved for the loss of her core identity.
She began her journey to seek healing. She knew she needed mental health support and was disappointed to discover NOTHING was available in the mental health community that addressed this unique dynamic - loss of genetic identity. She sought support through family therapists and found them to be severely lacking in empathy, understanding or - most importantly - tools to rebuild one’s identity. She felt isolated in her darkness. She felt that God had forsaken her.
Catherine created a Facebook group so that others who had experienced this traumatic discovery about themselves could come together and provide emotional support to each other, because she discovered that those who had not experienced this could not understand why this was so impactful. Her little group rapidly began growing and within a year, she was providing support to over 1,000 people. Today, over seven years later, her group has expanded to a Facebook community of over 100 groups that supports about 15,000 people impacted by an NPE discovery.
Because of the need for services to NPEs, she founded a non-profit organization, NPE Network, of which she currently sits in the role of Chair Emeritus. Catherine rallied other NPEs with mental health professional backgrounds, who shared her drive towards advocacy for NPEs and they formed an advisory team for NPE Network. This team coordinated with the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching to design an NPE-Trauma training module for the mental health community and anyone feeling drawn to being an advocate to NPE's. This adds to one's wheelhouse of training so that they can provide the necessary support to NPEs.
Catherine is a national public speaker sharing her story and bringing about awareness to the damage of family secrecy when it comes to a person’s origin story. She is doing her part to exact change in family communication, so future generations will never have to experience this trauma.
As a Trauma-Recovery Coach herself now, Catherine’s mission is to help people struggling with a past trauma to heal and restore and learn how to love themselves fully. Having made peace with God, Catherine views her spiritual relationship as very personal and that all spiritual beliefs deserve the same level of respect, recognizing each person has their own path and no two paths are alike. Catherine offers a safe space to everyone, and most specifically to those who are in marginalized communities. She sees each person - no matter their race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability - as a unique individual worthy of love, respect, and success. She offers a hand to lift you out of the shadows and into a healthy healing light.
Catherine's professional and personal backgrounds are in public policy, law and medicine. She has worked in the lobbying field, closely with Texas state legislators, mayors, and county judges. She currently works in local government, with her focus on Mental Health, Protective Orders, and CPS. She was named the Face of Family Caregivers for Texas by AARP in 2015. Since her parents deaths seventeen years ago, she has been the primary caregiver to her severely disabled adopted sister, so she has mastered medical knowledge pertaining to the care, maintenance and survival of adults living with complex medical conditions.
Catherine has one daughter and two grandchildren. She shares her home with her sister and their retired, disabled Vietnam-era veteran brother in Conroe, Texas along with her Welsh Corgi, "Ruthie."
