Discovering Your Sensory Neurotype: A Mindful Self-Inventory for Neuro-Affirming Practice

Discover how to make mindfulness truly inclusive by learning to identify “sensory sweet spots” and adapt practices in ways that honor every neurotype.

Mindfulness has become a cornerstone of modern wellness, embraced by therapists, coaches, and healthcare professionals worldwide. Yet for many neurodivergent individuals, the way mindfulness is typically delivered can feel inaccessible—or even alienating.

“Everyone is perfect as they are. The challenge is that the world, and often mindfulness itself, isn’t built with neurodivergent minds in mind.”
—Sue Hutton

Sue Hutton MSW/RSW, a mindfulness teacher and neurodiversity advocate—invites us to reimagine mindfulness through a neuro-affirming lens. Her work reframes mindfulness not as a rigid script but as an adaptable practice—one that honors sensory pathways, affirms diverse neurotypes, and empowers individuals to connect with presence in ways that work for them.

In our on-demand workshop, Discovering Your Sensory Neurotype in Mindfulness: Neuro-Affirming Practices, Sue shares insights and how to deliver the Mindful Self-Inventory practice—to help clients and practitioners alike identify their sensory sweet spots to adapt their mindfulness practice and self-regulate on-and-off the cushion.

This article draws from Sue’s teachings, exploring the importance of neurodivergent inclusion in mindfulness practice and introducing the Mindful Self-Inventory as a practical tool for discovering your sensory sweet spot. You’ll find insights and practices to support both your professional work and your personal journey toward presence that honors every mind.

Contents:

1. Understanding the Basics of Neurotypes
2. Where Traditional Mindfulness Falls Short
3. Moving Toward Inclusion
4. The Mindful Self-Inventory: Discovering Your Sensory Sweet Spot
5. Implications for Practice
6. Learn More: Culturally Grounded Mindfulness for Therapeutic and Coaching Practice

Understanding the Basics of Neurotypes

A neurotype refers to the natural way an individual’s brain processes, perceives, and interacts with the world. It encompasses more than just sensory preferences—it includes how we think, communicate, regulate emotions, and engage socially. Just as no two fingerprints are alike, no two neurotypes are the same. Each person carries a distinct sensory and cognitive profile that shapes how they connect, cope, and flourish.

Too often, neurodivergence has been framed through a medical lens, with language that pathologizes differences. Sue Hutton and her colleagues at the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre in Toronto, advocate for a different view: a strength-based, community-driven approach in which every neurotype is valid and every profile deserves affirmation.

For helping professionals, understanding neurotypes is foundational. Without it, well-meaning practices may inadvertently dismiss or even retraumatize clients. When we pause to ask, how does this person’s sensory system engage with the world? We open the door to authentic inclusion and empowerment.

Where Traditional Mindfulness Falls Short

Classic mindfulness techniques often assume a neurotypical baseline. Long periods of stillness, silent retreats, or practices like body scans are often presented as the gold standard. Yet these very forms can be overwhelming, dysregulating, or even unsafe for some neurodivergent minds.

• Extended stillness and silence: For some, regulation comes not from stillness but gentle movement. Expecting complete immobility can amplify discomfort or agitation.
• Closed-eye meditation: While this may deepen focus for some, for others it sparks anxiety, hypervigilance, or panic. Keeping the eyes open should always be an option.
• Body scans: Focusing on internal sensations can be intolerable for those with heightened interoceptive awareness. Rather than grounding, it may trigger trauma responses.

These challenges highlight that mindfulness cannot be a one-size-fits-all practice. What supports one person’s well-being may destabilize another’s. To truly honor the diversity of human minds, we must approach mindfulness with flexibility, choice, and an understanding that every sensory system has its own pathway to presence.

Moving Toward Inclusion

Inclusion begins with adaptation. At the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, where Sue collaborates with autistic advisors, mindfulness groups are designed with neuro-affirming strategies at their core. Participants are invited to share their sensory needs in advance—whether that means dimmed lights, flexible seating, or permission to move.

Sue recounts the story of a participant who arrived at a mindfulness group wearing a baseball cap pulled low over their eyes to shield against fluorescent lights and reduce the strain of eye contact. By verbalizing their needs, they modelled self-advocacy and created space for others to share their own strategies, which the group embraced.

These adaptations are not “special accommodations”; they are essential practices of respect. When facilitators signal, “you are perfect as you are”, participants can show up authentically, without masking or hiding. This shift from conformity to affirmation is the heart of neurodivergent-inclusive mindfulness.

The Mindful Self-Inventory: Discovering Your Sensory Sweet Spot

So how do we begin? The Mindful Self-Inventory provides a straightforward yet powerful practice for uncovering one’s sensory profile and identifying pathways to regulation that feel authentic and safe. The practice unfolds in five gentle steps:

Step 1: Grounding
Start by anchoring in presence in the way it works for you. This might be through the breath, noticing the sound of the breath, or the rise and fall of the belly, or simply feeling the weight of your feet on the ground. Grounding sets the stage for safe exploration.

Step 2: Senses—Inventory Exploration
Move one by one through the five senses—vision, sound, touch, taste, and smell. With curiosity, notice what is available without judgment. Importantly, participants are always encouraged to honor their own boundaries: if a sense feels overwhelming, it can be skipped. The goal is gentleness, not pressure.

Step 3: Identify What’s Soothing
As you explore, pay attention to which sense or input feels most calming, comforting, or nourishing. Perhaps it’s the softness of fabric under your fingers, the rhythm of your breath, or a familiar sound in the background.

Step 4: Find Your Sensory Sweet Spot
After exploring, once you notice what’s soothing, anchor it. This becomes your personal sensory “sweet spot”—a reliable point of return when you need regulation, comfort, or grounding.

Step 5: Bring It into Everyday Life
Consider how to weave this discovery into daily routines. It might be savoring the aroma of morning tea, pausing to notice birdsong on a walk, or reconnecting with a grounding touch before entering a stressful meeting. These small moments extend the use of the sensory sweet spot from the cushion and into the fabric of daily life.

Through this guided “inventory,” individuals identify their sensory sweet spots—anchors they can return to for regulation and comfort. As Sue notes, these sweet spots are always with us. Whether it’s a lozenge tucked in a pocket, the rhythm of breath, or the sound of a bird outside, our senses can become everyday tools of resilience.

For helping professionals, the Mindful Self-Inventory is not just an exercise for clients but also a reflective practice for themselves. We cannot support others until we understand our own sensory profiles.

Implications for Practice

Integrating neurotype awareness into professional practice has far-reaching implications:

• Adapting mindfulness sessions: Always offer options—shorter practices, gentle movement, open- or closed-eye meditation—and normalize that there is no “wrong” way to practice. Remember: everyone is perfect as they are.
• Empowering self-advocacy: Invite and support clients to name their sensory needs, while discerning where, when, and with whom it feels safe to share. Disclosure is always optional and should never come at the expense of well-being.
• Framing adaptation as wisdom: Help clients reframe adaptation not as weakness, but as strength, dignity, and self-knowledge in action.
• Preventing harm: Research and lived experience show that chronic masking and conforming to neurotypical norms can lead to stress, trauma, and burnout. Neurodivergent-inclusive mindfulness interrupts this cycle by honoring authenticity.
• Everyday application: Encourage clients (and yourself) to bring sensory anchors “off the cushion” into daily life—headphones, fidget tools, visual objects, grounding breaths, or savoring simple moments of comfort.

Ultimately, neurodivergent-inclusive mindfulness is not just about accessibility—it’s about reimagining mindfulness itself as a flexible, living practice rooted in compassion and justice.

Discovering your neurotype is more than a personal exercise; it’s a collective reorientation toward inclusion. By embracing diverse sensory profiles, we dismantle the myth of “one right way” to practice and honor the truth that everyone is perfect as they are.

Learn More: Discovering Your Sensory Neurotype in Mindfulness: Neuro-Affirming Practices

Interested in learning more? Deepen your understanding of neurodivergent-inclusive mindfulness in our on-demand workshop:Discovering Your Sensory Neurotype in Mindfulness: Neuro-Affirming Practices with Sue Hutton.

Through this experiential, practice-based resource, you’ll explore neuro-affirming strategies and engage in the Mindful Self-Inventory—a guided process designed to help you and your clients identify sensory sweet spots for greater comfort, regulation, and self-awareness. This workshop includes high-definition video lessons with professional transcripts, a practical learning module, and guidance for adapting mindfulness practices in ways that are flexible, safe, and empowering.

Feel free to share this post with friends, family, or colleagues. Thanks for your ongoing interest and support!

Sue Hutton MSW/RSW and Mindfulness Teacher has been practicing mindfulness meditation since 1985 and loves finding creative ways of adapting mindfulness for each person’s uniqueness. Sue infuses a human rights and accessibility lens in her mindfulness work. Working with the CAMH Azrieli Neurodevelopmental Centre mindfulness research team for the last decade, Sue creates neuro-affirming mindfulness practices with and for autistic adults and their caregivers. Contact Sue to find out when groups are being offered.

Sarah Kraftchuk, MSc, RP (qualifying), is Head of Learning at the Mindful Institute. She is a licensed clinician, certified mindfulness facilitator, art therapist, and children’s book author.  

 Michael Apollo MHSc RP, is a licensed clinician, mindfulness educator, and Founder of the Mindful Institute. With over 15 years of experience, he specializes in practical, evidence-based mindfulness training for helping professionals. Formerly Director of Mindfulness Programs at the University of Toronto, Michael has collaborated with organizations like the World Health Organization, the UK NHS, and the Canadian Parliament to support mental well-being and resilience in diverse settings.

References

Sue Hutton Mindfulness - https://www.suehuttonmindfulness.com/

Disclaimer

The content in our blogs is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your health provider with any questions you may have regarding your mental health.