Let’s talk about why feeling body sensations is important for everyone, but especially for neurodivergent clients

Many neurodivergent clients struggle with noticing their internal body sensations — a process known as interoception. In my experience, some clients are aware of this challenge when they begin therapy, but many are not. They often don’t realize how limited body awareness connects to other difficulties, such as reduced emotional awareness and emotional intelligence. Feeling emotions in the body allows the brain to form intuitive associations — the foundation of how our emotional awareness develops. This embodied connection also deepens empathy for others, helps us to accurately gauge the emotional experience of others, and enhances the quality of relationships as a result. Beyond emotions, interoception helps us recognize sensations such as hunger, fatigue, or stress buildup — vital signals from the body that guide self-care and overall well-being.

However, for many neurodivergent individuals, increasing body awareness can be difficult, and for some, it may even feel impossible. Some have had negative therapy experiences in the past when attempts to build body awareness through meditation or mindfulness left them feeling frustrated or like failures due the struggles of trying to corral their attention and bring it back to their body. Others perceive the idea of building body awareness as ableist, or even express that being disconnected from their bodies helps them cope with life’s stressors by dampening distressing sensations.

While I empathize deeply with these perspectives because of the struggle many have in building body awareness, it’s important to recognize that some level of body awareness is essential for positive therapeutic outcomes. Feeling emotions in the body is a key part of processing trauma and attachment wounds. Ignoring this to save some clients temporary hardship is not really a kindness. Clients are coming to therapy wanting to get better and for many with low body awareness, that is where their work in therapy must start for them to eventually reach their goals in therapy. Fortunately, clients do not need perfect interoceptive awareness for therapy to work — even noticing sensations with basic specificity (for example, “I feel tightness in my chest”) can be enough. Techniques such as somatic therapies, body-scan meditations, neurofeedback, or the Safe and Sound Protocol can all help increase body awareness. In some cases, medications that regulate the nervous system may also support this process.

Building body awareness offers other significant benefits. Tracking bodily stress signals allows people to recognize when rest and recovery are needed before reaching burnout. Without this awareness, stress accumulates unnoticed until it becomes overwhelming. Similarly, when disconnected from hunger cues, people may unintentionally neglect their nutritional needs — avoiding the discomfort of hunger but still suffering its physical and emotional consequences.

Disconnection from the body also blunts awareness of pain signals. While this might sound appealing, especially for those with chronic pain or sensory sensitivities, it often leads to greater harm. Pain that goes unnoticed can worsen over time, contribute to poor sleep, and prevent the body from truly resting. Developing greater awareness doesn’t necessarily mean feeling more pain — it means gaining the ability to respond to it sooner and more effectively.

This lack of conscious awareness of bodily pain or discomfort is often related to a dissociative symptom called depersonalization. Even when someone is not consciously aware of their pain, the brain still registers it at a subconscious level. As a result, a person might lie awake, restless and unable to sleep, unaware that their body is in distress. Over time, this disconnection can contribute to mental health struggles that seem mysterious or unrelated to the body but are actually deeply intertwined with it.

The causes of low body awareness among neurodivergent individuals are often multifaceted. In some cases, it may be linked to executive functioning challenges rooted in the insula, a brain region involved in sensing internal states that is part of our executive functioning network in the brain. Practices that strengthen executive functioning — such as meditation or neurofeedback — can be especially helpful. In other cases, depersonalization may stem from trauma or attachment disruptions. Many neurodivergent individuals are also diagnosed later in life, meaning their sensory sensitivities often went unrecognized during childhood. When sensory overwhelm is unaddressed for years, especially in early development, it can lead to habitual disconnection from bodily sensations. Because these adaptations form so early, adults may have little or no conscious memory of when or how the disconnection began.

In trauma therapy, the goal is not only to help clients feel sensations in their bodies but also to sustain that awareness over time so that emotional processing can occur,. This helps a client’s nervous system and internal sense of self to shift in a more positive direction leading to improved emotional wellbeing. This skill of sustaining body awareness develops gradually, often through repeated practice with a therapist’s support. Many people with low interoceptive awareness tend to direct their attention outward — toward thoughts, people, or environmental stimuli — rather than inward into their body sensations. A key part of therapy involves gently guiding attention back to the body again and again so the brain learns to maintain that connection more easily.

Eventually, clients can learn to hold both internal and external awareness at the same time — for example, staying aware of their own bodily emotions while listening to their partner express theirs. This dual awareness of self and other, often described in attachment theory, is a cornerstone of emotional intimacy and healthier relationships. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but cultivating it brings people closer to balance, connection, and authenticity.