Wheel of Emotions online

What is the Wheel of Emotions?

The Wheel of Emotions is a model created by psychologist Robert Plutchik that arranges 8 basic emotions in the shape of a flower: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger and anticipation. Each takes a coloured petal and has three intensities: the strongest in the centre and the mildest towards the edge.

If you work with CoachPro Tools, you can bring this work into the session with the platform's interactive tools, record what the client discovers in Live Session Notes and pick it up again from their client record and client space. You will find the step-by-step process below.

Its great contribution is vocabulary. Feeling annoyance is not the same as anger or rage, nor is pensiveness the same as sadness or grief. Putting the exact name to an emotion is already a way to start managing it.

The 8 basic emotions and their intensities

How to use it with your clients in CoachPro Tools

This free version lets you try the exercise. In CoachPro Tools you have the Emotional Audit — Plutchik's Vocabulary to work through with your clients: from the client record you choose it and assign it to that client.

During the session. Complete it with the client live, in person or by sharing your screen in the platform's video call, and note in Live Session Notes the emotion the client names, its intensity and what they decide to do.

Afterwards. Save the result, download the PDF and it stays in the history of their client record. If you share it, the client sees it in their client space alongside the actions you agreed on.

Between sessions. If they want to keep observing, suggest the Emotional Journal; in the Client Log they tell you what they noticed. In the next session you open their client record and pick up from there.

You agree a six-session process with a client. In the first session you review their goal and note it in Live Session Notes from their client record. You share the tool in their client space so they can complete it before the session. From there you focus on the coaching: every session has its appointment in the calendar, its video call, its notes and the tools you work on together live. The client sees what you agreed and their actions in their client space, and writes to you in the Client Log between sessions. You see each client's whole process in one place, from first contact to closing, without jumping between apps.

It works the same whether you do life, executive, team or wellbeing coaching: you prepare each session from the client record, work through the interactive tools live and follow up between sessions on the same coaching platform.

The combinations: neighbouring emotions

Plutchik proposed that neighbouring emotions on the wheel combine into more complex ones. Some of the best known:

• Joy + trust = love.
• Anticipation + joy = optimism.
• Anger + anticipation = aggressiveness.
• Sadness + disgust = remorse.
• Disgust + anger = contempt.

What it is used for in coaching

• Expanding emotional vocabulary. Moving from “I feel bad” to “I feel apprehension and a bit of annoyance” changes the conversation.
• Distinguishing intensities. It helps see whether to act now or wait for the intensity to drop.
• Connecting with the body. Noticing where each emotion is felt allows you to recognise it sooner.
• Discovering the need. Each emotion points to something that matters: a boundary, a loss, a desire.

In CoachPro Tools, write down in Live Session Notes the client's exact words: they stay in their client record for the next session.

What each emotion asks of you

• Fear: to protect yourself and prepare.
• Anger: to set a boundary or change something unfair.
• Sadness: to stop, let go and ask for support.
• Disgust: to move away from what harms you or clashes with your values.
• Surprise: to pause and understand what happened.
• Joy, trust and anticipation: to share, get closer and move towards what you want.

If the client wants to keep working on it between sessions, share the tool in their client space and ask them to tell you in the Client Log how it went.

How to use the wheel in session, step by step

1. Choose a specific situation. Ideally something recent and concrete.
2. Name the emotions. Up to three, looking for the exact word on the wheel.
3. Look at the intensity. Is it in the centre or at the edge?
4. Place them in the body. Where are they felt?
5. Ask what they need. What need lies behind them?
6. Define a response. What to do with that need, instead of just reacting.

Powerful questions about emotions

• If you had to give it a more precise name, what would it be?
• Where do you feel it in your body?
• From 1 to 10, how intense is it?
• What is this emotion telling you that you need?
• What would you do differently if you listened to it instead of covering it up?

Common mistakes

• Judging the emotion. There are no good or bad emotions; all of them inform.
• Staying at “good” or “bad”. Without precision, it is hard to know what to do.
• Trying to eliminate it. The goal is to listen and respond, not to suppress it.
• Deciding at peak intensity. It helps to wait until it comes down a step.

Frequently asked questions