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 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.
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 since 2013 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
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 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.
Why Do Helping Professionals Use the Self-Care Wheel® With Clients?
The Self-Care Wheel® was designed to be used directly in practice, not just discussed conceptually.
Professionals choose it because it is:
Client-centered and strengths-based Easy for clients to understand quickly Flexible across cultures, roles, and life stages Non-shaming and non-prescriptive Effective for both short-term insight and long-term change
It works especially well with clients who:
Feel overwhelmed or “bad at self-care”
Struggle with boundaries and over-giving
Are navigating stress, trauma, recovery, or life transitions
Need structure without rigidity
The Self-Care Wheel® frameworks provides a simple visual structure and a shared language that helps clients: identify unmet needs, understand balance across life areas, make realistic, sustainable choices, build agency rather than pressure.
How Is the Self-Care Wheel® Used in Client-Facing Work by Professionals and Agencies?
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.
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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