For example, sensory processing differences can show up in the therapy room, and various therapy environments can unintentionally add to client overwhelm. A neurodivergent client might have sensitivities to sound, light, textures, and smells. Some things you can do as a therapist to make your office environment more friendly to neurodivergent clients includes:

• Trade ticking clocks in for non-ticking clocks.
• Explain unexpected loud noises if possible.
• Provide a heads up about ongoing noises next door.
• Use lamps instead of overhead lights.
• Have fidgets, pillows, or blankets accessible.
• Offer alternative seating or standing options.
• Skip strong smelling lotions, perfumes, or colognes while in sessions, and
• Consider decorations and colors that encourage calm and predictability. 

In addition, communication styles are important to consider when working with neurodivergent clients. Thoughtful direct communication is better received than indirect communication. The reason for this is that direct communication supports clarity, safety, and trust. It’s about being clear, concrete, and predictable.

Further, as a therapist, offering the “why” behind a thought, intervention, or recommendation promotes autonomy and encourages collaboration in treatment. Neurodivergent clients can have differences in processing time, verbal expression, and nonverbal cues. It can help to include processing time into sessions by making space for deep thinking and verbal responses and not rushing topics or interventions.

Eye contact should not be expected or used as an indicator of engagement, honesty, or emotional presence, despite what therapists are taught. Tone of voice is not necessarily indicative of emotion with your clients. It will help to ask clarifying questions instead of interpreting client responses, based on neurotypical norms. Another idea is to offer visual scales, lists of feeling words, and somatic check-ins for communication options. 

Being neurodivergent in a neurotypical world causes emotional distress, often leading to depression and anxiety. There is a direct link between chronic invalidation of neurodivergent people’s experiences, and trauma. A client’s past experiences with authority figures, therapists, doctors, and school systems shape mental health well-being and their expectations in therapy. It is helpful to consider how you would like to show up in the therapy room to best support your neurodivergent clients.