The Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) is a standardized questionnaire developed by Dr. Winnie Dunn. It maps how you experience sensory input across multiple domains—sound, light, touch, movement, and more. It identifies your patterns: Do you seek intense input? Do you avoid it? Are you highly sensitive or do you filter things out? It's a brilliant piece of research.
It's a Map, Not a
Pathology Report.
The Sensory Profile is brilliant science—until the pathology paradigm weaponizes it.
We rescue this tool and use it to understand your unique nervous system.
Honoring the Source.
Rejecting the System.
The Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP), developed by pioneers like Winnie Dunn, is a work of genius. It was one of the first tools to systematically acknowledge a profound truth that neurodivergent people have known for millennia: we all experience the sensory world in vastly different ways.
So what went wrong? The pathology paradigm → got its goddamn hands on it.
In the traditional system, the Sensory Profile is used as a weapon. It identifies "abnormal" sensory processing to justify a "Sensory Processing Disorder" diagnosis. It takes a person's unique way of experiencing the world and frames it as a defect.
At Enlitens, we rescue this brilliant tool from that broken system.
Your Nervous System
Is Not a Disorder.
There Is No "Normal"
The idea that there is a "correct" sensory system is a scientific fiction. Every nervous system is unique. To pathologize a sensitive system is like pathologizing a high-performance microphone for picking up more sound.
Behavior Is a Signal
What the traditional model calls "symptoms"—avoiding crowds, seeking pressure—are brilliant, adaptive strategies. They are signals about your body's needs, not a sickness to be cured.
Accommodation, Not "Normalization"
We are not trying to "fix" your system or teach you to "tolerate" hostile environments. Our goal is to redesign your environment to be less hostile and more humane.
The Enlitens Method:
From Test to Survey.
Step 1: The Mission Briefing
We begin by explicitly reframing the tool. "This is not a test. There are no right or wrong answers. We're using this as a reconnaissance tool—a flashlight to explore all the corners of your sensory landscape."
Step 2: The Collaborative Mapping
We create a visual map together: "Energy Vampires 🧛" on one side, "Recharge Stations 🔋" on the other. Each questionnaire item is a cue to launch a Tiered Narrative Inquiry →—not just "are bright lights a problem?" but "tell me the story of the last time you were in a Target and felt that sensory assault."
Step 3: The Debrief
We look at your completed map together and connect it to the core principles of Polyvagal Theory →. "This isn't a list of your problems; this is the operating manual for your specific neuroception."
Part of: The Clinical Model Hub | Explore the Full Enlitens Interview Model
Common Questions
Because the traditional system uses it to diagnose "Sensory Processing Disorder"—framing your unique sensory experience as a defect. You tell a clinician "the world is too loud" and they hand you a report that says "your system is broken." That is clinical gaslighting. We reject that entirely.
We use the Sensory Profile as a reconnaissance tool—a flashlight to explore your internal landscape. We're not scoring you. We're collaboratively building a map of "Energy Vampires" and "Recharge Stations." The goal is understanding, not diagnosis.
You get a topographical map of your nervous system. We identify the specific sensory cues your system interprets as "threat" and those it interprets as "safety." Your avoidance of concerts isn't "anxiety"—it's a brilliant strategy to protect a sensitive auditory system. This is not pathology; this is genius.
Absolutely. Your sensory map becomes part of your comprehensive "User Manual"—a document that gives you professional, objective language to advocate for reasonable accommodations at work, school, or in relationships. It reframes your needs from "special requests" to "operational requirements."
