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THE SELF CARE WHEEL®
What Is the Self-Care Wheel®?
The Self-Care Wheel® is a Client-Centered, Trauma-Informed, Evidence-Based, and Globally Recognized Framework for Teaching Practical, Sustainable Self-Care
Designed for and trusted by helping professionals, mental health practitioners, coaches, agencies, and institutions worldwide.
Self-Care Isn’t Common Sense. It’s a Skill That Must Be Learned
Many clients are told to “practice self-care.” Very few are ever taught:
What self-care actually includes
How to personalize it
How to make it realistic and sustainable
How to practice it without guilt, shame, or perfectionism
As a result, self-care becomes:
- Overwhelming
- Inconsistent
- Performative
- Or abandoned altogether.
The Self-Care Wheel® framework and assessment tools was created to give professionals a clear, structured, and teachable way to help clients build self-care skills they can actually use.
Why Is the Self-Care Wheel® #1 Rated Global Framework?
The Self-Care Wheel® is a six-dimensional framework that transforms self-care from a vague idea into a practical, client-friendly roadmap. The framework includes the Self-Care Wheel®, the Self-Care Wheel Assessment®, and the Create Your Own Self-Care Wheel® tools.
Created by Olga Phoenix MPA, MA, an internationally recognized wellbeing and resilience expert, the Self-Care Wheel® has been voted #1 self-care framework and used globally by over 10 million people in 80+countries since 2013. It is especially loved by:
Therapists, counselors, coaches & facilitators
Social service & DV agencies
University counseling centers
Community and recovery programs
It provides professionals with:
A shared language for self-care
A visual framework clients easily understand
A non-judgmental way to assess gaps
A tool that supports insight, choice, and agency
How do helping professionals use the Self-Care Wheel® in 1:1 sessions and groups?
If you’re a therapist, coach, counselor, or group facilitator, the Self-Care Wheel® becomes a client-centered roadmap you can actually work with in session, especially with trauma history, burnout, depression, anxiety, or chronic people-pleasing.
Here are a few of the most effective ways professionals use it:
As a shame-free assessment: clients can point to what’s missing without having to “explain themselves” for 20 minutes.
To create a shared language: instead of vague advice, you and the client can name the exact dimension that’s under-supported.
To reduce overwhelm: the Wheel helps clients see that self-care isn’t one big “fix my life” task — it’s small, specific supports.
To build follow-through: you can help clients choose one realistic step that fits their real life (not their ideal life).
In groups: it gives structure, reflection prompts, and a simple way for participants to create an action plan they’ll actually use.
Want a Step-by-Step Session Method for Using the Self-Care Wheel® (Including Follow-Through)?
The Self-Care Wheel® gives you a powerful framework.
But many professionals still get stuck at the same point: implementation.
When a client says, “I know what to do… I just can’t,” or returns with no follow-through, it’s easy for self-care to quietly turn into another place they feel behind, ashamed, or “not doing it right.”
That’s why we created the Self-Care Wheel® Session Success Kit for helping professionals-an educational facilitation manual for 1:1 sessions and groups that gives you a repeatable, trauma-informed, shame-free flow you can rely on.
It shows you how to guide clients from insight → to a realistic plan → to follow-through, without scrambling for what to say next.
Inside the Session Success Kit, you’ll get:
A repeatable session flow (assess → choose a focus → micro-step plan → Plan B for barriers)
Scripts and prompts for resistance, shutdown, and “I didn’t do it” moments
Client-friendly assessment guide + interpretation prompts
An Action Plan Builder for tiny steps that actually work.
👉 Get the Session Success Kit ($47)
Instant PDF download • 30-day guarantee
What are the Six Dimensions of the Self-Care Wheel®?
The Self-Care Wheel® recognizes that effective self-care is multidimensional, and that focusing on only one area leaves clients vulnerable elsewhere.
- 🧠 Psychological: thought patterns, stress management, mental health support, and cognitive wellbeing.
- ❤️ Emotional: emotional awareness, expression, processing, and regulation.
- 🧘 Physical: sleep, movement, nutrition, health care, and body-based support.
- 🌿 Spiritual: meaning, values, purpose, inner grounding, and connection (inclusive and non-religious).
- 👤 Personal: identity, boundaries, joy, rest, relationships, and life outside of roles.
- 💼 Professional: workload boundaries, role clarity, support systems, and sustainable expectations.
Together, these dimensions offer clients a clear, holistic picture of what self-care actually looks like in real life, not just in theory.
What Does an “Imbalanced” Self-Care Wheel® Actually Mean?
Most clients don’t struggle because they “don’t care.”
They struggle because one or two dimensions have been under-supported for a long time — and the body adapts. For example:
When the Professional dimension is overloaded, Physical and Emotional self-care often collapses first.
When Personal needs are neglected (identity, boundaries, joy), clients may over-function in Professional or over-give in relationships.
When Spiritual grounding is missing (meaning, values, purpose), self-care can feel pointless — even when clients “do all the right things.”
When Psychological stress is high, clients often default to survival patterns: avoidance, perfectionism, people-pleasing, or shutdown.
The Wheel helps clients see a simple truth-self-care isn’t one behavior, it’s an eco-system. And when one area is consistently depleted, other areas will compensate until something breaks.
That’s why the Self-Care Wheel® is so effective in therapy, coaching, and groups: it helps clients name what’s happening without shame, and choose a realistic starting point.
What Is the Global Impact of the Self-Care Wheel®?
Since it’s release in 2013, the Self-Care Wheel® has become one of the most widely used and referenced self-care frameworks in the world.
Over the past 13 years, it has been:
Downloaded and used by over 10 million individuals
Adopted across 80+ countries
Implemented by hundreds of thousands of trauma professionals, agencies, and organizations
Translated into multiple languages
Featured in leading media outlets and professional publications
The Self-Care Wheel® framework has been highlighted in outlets such as Thrive Global, PopSugar, Positive Psychology, Women’s Health, and Sporteluxe, and has been referenced in books, academic literature, peer reviewed journals, and professional training materials worldwide.
What began as a single visual framework evolved into a global self-care movement, fundamentally reshaping how self-care is understood and practiced, from an occasional “treat-yourself” activity into a core, teachable life skill.
What are Some of the Professional Use Cases for the Self-Care Wheel®?
Professionals commonly use the Self-Care Wheel® in:
Individual therapy and coaching sessions
Group programs and workshops
Psychoeducation and skills-building
Intake, reflection, and goal-setting
Ongoing self-care planning and check-ins
It helps clients move from: “Knowing they should care for themselves”→ to understanding how to do it sustainably.
Beyond individual client work, the Self-Care Wheel® is widely used in organizational and community settings. Agencies and institutions use it to support: burnout and compassion fatigue prevention, workforce wellbeing initiatives, wellness champion and peer-support programs, staff reflection and supervision, sustainable service delivery
By providing a shared wellbeing language, the Self-Care Wheel® helps organizations shift self-care from an individual burden to a supported, normalized practice.
If you want the step-by-step facilitation method for sessions and groups, the Self-Care Wheel® Session Success Kit is designed for that.
Why Is Copyright Licensing Required for Professional or Organizational Use of the Self-Care Wheel®?
The Self-Care Wheel® framework and tools are are copyrighted intellectual property and copyright licensing is required for using these resources at a professional level.
If you are using the Self-Care Wheel with clients, students, groups, staff, or communities, ethical and legal use requires proper licensing-this is why we created the Self-Care Wheel Copyright Licensing Program comes into play.
The Self-Care Wheel® Copyright Licensing Program, allows you to:
✔ Use and distribute the tools legally
✔ Integrate them into therapy, coaching, groups, and programs
✔ Apply them across teams or departments (by license tier)
✔ Maintain ethical and professional standards
✔ Save time creating materials from scratch
Licensing options are available for: Solo professionals, agencies and nonprofits, universities and institutions, multi-site and enterprise organizations.
Ready to Use the Self-Care Wheel® in Your Professional Work?
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