A globally loved framework for turning self-care from a vague idea into a clear, compassionate path toward wellbeing.
Created by Olga Phoenix in 2013, the Self-Care Wheel© has helped millions of people across 80+ countries better understand what it means to care for a whole human life - emotionally, psychologically, physically, spiritually, personally, and professionally.
10M+ downloads•80+ countries•Used by therapists, coaches, advocates, agencies, universities, hospitals, and wellbeing leaders worldwide
Most people already know they should care for themselves.
They have heard the advice:
But when life is overwhelming - when someone is grieving, caregiving, burned out, traumatized, overfunctioning, or simply disconnected from their own needs - those words can feel painfully vague.
Because the real question is not:
“Do I believe self-care matters?”
“What does care actually look like for me, in this season of my life?”
What part of me has been neglected?
Where am I depleted?
What kind of support do I need most?
What is one small, realistic place to begin?
The Self-Care Wheel© was created to help answer those questions.
Not with pressure. Not with perfectionism. Not with one more standard to fail.But with a clear, compassionate visual map that helps people see their wellbeing more fully - and begin caring for themselves with greater intention, honesty, and grace.
The Self-Care Wheel© is a multidimensional visual framework that helps individuals and professionals explore the many areas of life that shape wellbeing.
Rather than reducing self-care to isolated habits or surface-level wellness trends, the Wheel offers a broader, more human view of what it means to care for ourselves over time.
It invites reflection across six interconnected dimensions.
The inner practices that support reflection, learning, awareness, and mental clarity.
The capacity to feel, express, soothe, and respond to emotions with honesty and care.
The foundational support of the body through rest, nourishment, movement, medical care, and safety.
The practices that protect identity, joy, interests, boundaries, and the private self beyond roles and obligations.
The ways we create sustainability, meaning, balance, and healthy limits within work and service.
The practices that connect us with meaning, values, purpose, awe, faith, or a sense of belonging to something larger.
The Self-Care Wheel© helps turn something enormous and abstract into something visible.
A person can look at the Wheel and begin to notice:
For helping professionals, that same clarity creates a gentler, more productive conversation.
Instead of asking “What are you doing for self-care?” you can begin asking:
“As you look at the Wheel, what stands out to you?” “Which area feels most supported right now?” “Which area may be asking for more care?”
And the conversation becomes more personal. More compassionate. More useful.
The Self-Care Wheel© has been embraced around the world because it is both deeply human and remarkably adaptable.
Use the Wheel to reflect on your own wellbeing, notice imbalances, and reconnect with what care may need to look like now.
Use the Wheel to open client conversations about depletion, needs, habits, barriers, and sustainable self-care in a way that feels structured and shame-free.
Use the framework to support clients facing stress, trauma, instability, caregiving burdens, or prolonged overwhelm with a more accessible map of whole-person care.
Use the Wheel as a facilitation tool for meaningful learning experiences around wellbeing, resilience, prevention, and practical care.
Use the Self-Care Wheel© to build a shared language for wellbeing across programs, teams, trainings, and community initiatives.
The Self-Care Wheel© was not created because self-care was trendy. It was created because I needed a more honest framework for understanding what sustainable wellbeing actually asks of us.
At the time, I was deeply immersed in trauma-related work and service - passionate, committed, and also increasingly aware that the way many of us were talking about “self-care” was simply not enough.
The advice was everywhere. The clarity was not.
I wanted a tool that reflected the whole human being. A tool that moved beyond surface-level suggestions. A tool that could help someone look at their life and ask, gently but truthfully:
“What part of me needs care now?”
That desire became the Self-Care Wheel©. And over the years, what began as one woman’s attempt to make self-care more real became a framework that traveled farther than I ever imagined - into therapy rooms, classrooms, agencies, hospitals, support groups, training programs, and personal healing journeys across the world.
Read Olga’s Full Story →Downloads of the Self-Care Wheel©
Countries reached
Trusted by individuals and professionals worldwide
Of therapists, coaches, advocates, educators, agencies, and organizations using Olga’s frameworks
Featured and referenced across leading wellbeing, mental health, and personal growth platforms, including Women’s Health, SELF, Thrive Global, Authority Magazine, and Positive Psychology.
Begin with the original visual framework that has helped millions of people make self-care more visible, more personal, and more possible.
Use it to:
For personal reflection and sharing as permitted. Professional reproduction or use requires a copyright license.
If you are a therapist, coach, counselor, advocate, social worker, educator, trainer, or organizational leader, the Self-Care Wheel© can become far more than a helpful image.
It can become a facilitation framework.
A structured way to:
“Self-care becomes more possible when it stops being a vague demand and becomes a compassionate conversation.”- Olga Phoenix
Professional licensing plus session-ready tools to help you turn self-care from a vague recommendation into a clear, compassionate path forward for clients.
Explore the Professional SuiteThe Self-Care Wheel© is a visual framework created by Olga Phoenix to help people explore six interconnected dimensions of self-care and wellbeing: psychological, emotional, physical, personal, professional, and spiritual self-care.
The Self-Care Wheel© was created by Olga Phoenix, MPA, MA, in 2013 as part of her work in self-care, trauma-informed wellbeing, and practical personal transformation.
You can download the Wheel for personal reflection and use it to explore your own areas of support, depletion, and care.
Yes. Professional use is available through the Self-Care Wheel© Professional Facilitation and Licensing Suite, which includes the appropriate copyright license and professional-use materials based on your license level.
Yes, with the appropriate professional copyright license. License options are available for individual professionals, agencies, and enterprise-level organizations.
No. The Self-Care Wheel© is copyrighted intellectual property and may not be altered, recreated, or modified without explicit written permission.
You can download the official Wheel from OlgaPhoenix.com and explore professional licensing options through the Self-Care Wheel© Professional Facilitation and Licensing Suite.
Download the original Wheel for personal reflection, or explore professional licensing and facilitation tools to bring the framework into your client, group, or organizational work.