FAQs

You can use FW 2.0 to describe your feelings. Once a person describes their feelings, they can use different ways to move between (regulate) emotions.

All feelings are related.  Some are the opposites of each other, such as Scared and Peaceful.  Some are more similar such as Powerful and Joyful.  Understanding the relationships between feelings leads to much more impactful ways of changing your feelings.

FW 2.0 has been designed to be used by regular people, mental health professionals, parents, and teachers.  See specific FW 2.0 uses for each of these groups.

You can use this to explore and regulate emotions with clients.  In the FW 2.0 book, examples of how to use FW 2.0 with many different mental health challenges are explored, including anxiety, depression, and complex grief.  Also, ways to use FW 2.0 in DBT, Internal Family Systems Therapy, and Client-Centered therapy approaches are illustrated.

Parents and Teachers can use FW 2.0 to teach empathy and emotional intelligence.  Included in FW 2.0 book are matrices that can also be used to figure out emotions that drive behavior in children who have difficulty communicating.

Regular people can use FW 2.0 to learn about their emotions, how to change emotions they don’t want, and increase emotional intelligence when dealing with others

FW 2.0 was created to incorporate current research into the emotions of the original Feeling Wheel created in 1982 by Gloria Willcox, PhD.

Despite the original Feelings Wheel (FW) being used frequently in mental health and creative settings, there was never a book created that tried to show all the different ways to use FW in an organized way.  The article that introduced the FW in 1982 was only 3 pages long.  So whether you use the Feelings Wheel original or FW 2.0, this is the only book showing the evidence base and all the ways to use both.