The Feelings & Needs Wheel
Every feeling is a signal pointing at a need. Pick a feeling — the wheel reshapes to show the needs that usually sit underneath it.
Step 1 · Pick a feeling
Pick the broad feeling closest to right now.
How this works
- Pick a feeling on the wheel.
- The wheel reshapes — you'll see the three needs most often underneath it.
- Pick the one that fits. Get a sentence you can say out loud.
Nothing here is saved or sent. This is just for browsing.
Why combine them
The Feelings Wheel teaches you to name what you feel with precision. Nonviolent Communication teaches that underneath every feeling is a met or unmet need. Most tools do one or the other — this one walks you from one to the other, step by step.How to use it
- Pause and check inward. What's the broad color of this moment?
- Tap that feeling. The three needs most often underneath it appear.
- Pick the need word that lands in your body — even if it surprises you.
- Speak the sentence. That sentence is a request waiting to be made.
The map (not the territory)
These pairings are clinical defaults, not laws. Sadness usually points to connection, but yours might point to rest, or to meaning. The wheel is a starting place; your body is the final word.Lineage
Gloria Wilcox's Feelings Wheel (1982), Plutchik's eight core emotions, and Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication needs inventory. No new theory — just the two laid on top of each other.Nothing you tap here is saved or sent anywhere. This page is free to use and share — therapists often send it to clients between sessions.