The Feeling Wheel

Designed by Gloria Willcox, the feeling wheel is a visual aid that helps people recognize, talk about, and change their feelings. In her experience as a psychotherapist, Willcox found that people seemed to find themselves at a loss for words when describing how they feel, usually handicapped in their ability to verbalize their emotions by learned behaviors of what is and not acceptable, when it comes to sharing feelings.

Anatomy

The feeling wheel is composed of an inner circle with six segments corresponding to six primary feelings: mad, sad, scared, joyful, powerful, and peaceful. It has two outer concentric circles describing secondary feelings that relate to the primary ones, painted in lighter shades than their counterparts.

This graphic originally adapted from Tiffany France.