The Business of Being Seen

I am blessed to have a dear friend who often takes my hands, looks me in the eye, and says, “I see you. I hear you.”

No fixing, no analysis - just presence.

Each time, I’m reminded how powerful it is to be witnessed without expectation exactly as I am. In what seems a simple act, deep shifts are felt within.

How Autism Can Go Unrecognized For Decades

If you’ve been following us for a while, you probably know that the business partnership between Mackenzie and I was preceded by another kind of relationship—as mother and daughter. You might also know that Mackenzie was recently diagnosed with Autism. As a child, Mackenzie didn’t show any typical signs. She suffered from allergies; asthma and extreme eczema which created lots of challenges but teachers praised her focus. Doctors saw nothing more than allergies. Even when she was overwhelmed, the signs were explained away as the exhaustion of eczema, the standard nervous system overload. As parents, we were left wondering if there was more to her story.

It wasn’t until decades later, when motherhood added another layer of complexity to Mackenzie’s experience, that a different perspective emerged. A professional with similar lived experience offered an idea for Mackenzie to reflect on and the possibility of pursuing a diagnosis.

We’re now beginning to see that for her entire life up until now, she’d been working twice as hard to appear “fine.” Her effort to adapt to mask was invisible, even to those who loved her most.

The Weight of Masking

Masking is a quiet performance that starts so young it often becomes invisible even to the person doing it.  

It’s the careful calibration of words, tone, expression, and timing. It’s reading a room faster than anyone else and bending yourself to match its rhythm. It’s smiling when you’re confused, laughing when you’re uncomfortable, saying “it’s fine” when your nervous system is on fire.

Can you imagine what it feels like to live that way - always adjusting, always editing, always managing how much of yourself the world can handle?  To spend decades feeling like you’re almost understood, but not quite. Almost belonging, but not really. To be seen, but only the parts of yourself while masking the rest. 

This is the quiet exhaustion that so many neurodivergent adults bring into business. They’ve mastered the art of fitting in, but not the safety of being themselves. They’ve been rewarded for composure, not for truth.

And yet, the irony is this: the very traits they’ve been taught to hide - depth, sensitivity, pattern-seeing, empathy - are the qualities that make their leadership extraordinary. This truth has become a focal point in Mackenzie’s professional work with high-masking autistic business owners and businesses with neurodivergent employees. (Read more about this work: Neurodivergent Affirming Business Practices)

Seeing Autism in Business Beyond Performance

The lesson for workplaces is simple and profound: productivity isn’t proof of well-being.
When we equate composure with capacity, we miss the humans behind the performance.

At Costron + Co., the core of our work is helping people and organizations see clearly. We help leaders recognize the individuals behind the process. We help businesses create space for different needs, working styles, and sensory realities.

Our approach is grounded in neurodivergent-affirming practices: clear communication, flexible pacing, sensory awareness, and genuine curiosity. When workplaces build systems around these principles, everything changes. Engagement deepens. Innovation expands. Burnout drops.

Why Bother? The Benefits of Making Room for Neurodivergent Minds

Because every time we create space for difference, we expand what’s possible.  When we invite all kinds of thinkers, feelers, and processors to the table, the work itself becomes richer. Decisions get smarter. Products get more intuitive. Relationships get stronger.

Homogeneity might feel efficient but it’s short-sighted. A room filled with similar perspectives will rarely imagine what it has never lived. Innovation is born from contrast: the quiet thinker beside the rapid strategist, the pattern-seer beside the empath, the system-builder beside the storyteller.

History shows us what happens when different minds are allowed to shape the world. The earliest cave art wasn’t just decoration. It was communication: a sensory, symbolic way to connect community and story long before words existed. Someone saw differently, felt differently, and taught others to see too.

Centuries later, Temple Grandin transformed animal welfare and industrial design because she saw systems spatially from the animal’s eye view and proved that empathy could coexist with efficiency. Her difference redefined entire industries.

Neurodivergent Minds Expand What Business Can Be
And today, neurodivergent innovators across disciplines are doing the same—building worlds that work for more people, not fewer. Architects like Magda Mostafa design sensory-responsive schools that reduce stress and increase focus for every child. Entrepreneurs like Dr. Nancy Doyle build companies that harness neurodivergent strengths as a strategic advantage. Advocates like Greta Thunberg show us what happens when conviction and clarity are met with courage.

These are the minds expanding what business and humanity can be.

In business, making room for all minds isn’t just kind, it’s strategic. Teams that reflect diverse neurological, cultural, and emotional realities build solutions that resonate more deeply with clients and communities. They see nuance faster. They problem-solve with empathy. They anticipate the needs that others overlook.  

When leaders value every way of thinking, they stop trying to make people fit and start letting them contribute. And when people can contribute as they are, they do their best work, sustainably, creatively, and with a sense of purpose that customers can feel. This is what it means to run a truly human-centred business: one where people are seen clearly and supported fully.

When leaders see beyond productivity to presence, they uncover what drives every great organization:people who feel seen, bring their best and as a result, business thrives.

Moving Toward Inclusivity: The Work of Being Seen

At the core of our work at Costron + Co. is a simple but transformative belief: people thrive when they are seen.Everything we do - from therapy to coaching to organizational strategy - is designed around that principle. We build space for the whole person to be witnessed, not managed. For the entrepreneur, the leader, the employee to show up as they are;creative, sensitive, complex, and human.

How Costron + Co. Can Help
Our Therapy for Business Owners offering was created for those who carry the weight of both purpose and responsibility. It’s a space to be seen beyond the title—to explore how your emotional world, identity, and business realities intertwine.

Through our Neurodivergent-Affirming Practices work, we guide leaders and organizations to see differently. To understand that inclusion isn’t a checklist, but a daily way of working. Together, we help teams design systems that support how people actually think, feel, and create.

And our Duty to Accommodate service, offered through our sister company Find Your Voice Music Therapy, extends this philosophy into workplaces in a tangible, relational way. Through three guided therapy sessions and a personalized letter to the employer, we help employees name what they need and employers learn how to respond. It’s not a formality; it’s a bridge between understanding and action.

Humanist, Heart-Centered Business
When individuals are witnessed fully, their work becomes grounded and sustainable. They make decisions from clarity, lead from empathy, and build businesses that honour both their brilliance and their bandwidth.

When organizations learn to see the humans inside the work, they discover what inclusion was always meant to be: not a policy, but a practice.

Because when people are seen clearly and supported fully, they don’t just survive the workplace - they reshape it.

Being seen isn’t extra.
It’s the foundation of sustainable, human-centred business.