The emotions wheel is a useful tool for counsellors and mental health professionals.

The wheel starts in the centre where it is divided into five emotions - fear, disgust, happiness, sadness and anger. Separating the emotions into the initial five helps to limit feeling overwhelmed by the emotions wheel and identifies the main emotion being felt.

The Inner ring of the emotions wheel supports the client to add nuance and supports a client to name the specific emotion.

The Outer ring supports the client to then identify the depth of this feeling by being more specific and often relates to an emotion in the outer ring that clients can then link to their experience.

An example:

A client identifies they have been feeling sad but are struggling to say more about how this feels for them. By introducing the emotions wheel, they feel an alignment with loneliness but cannot describe how this feels for them so we return to the emotions wheel, the client immediately aligns with abandoned and discovers this links to their close friend having moved abroad for work.