Free somatic tool
The Sensations Wheel
Most of us have far more words for our opinions than for our bodies. When a therapist asks "what do you notice in your body?", the honest answer is often "…tension?" This wheel builds your interoceptive vocabulary — the language of inner sensation. Start at the center with a body system, move outward until a word matches what you actually feel, and click the words that fit. Notice how different "hollow" is from "knotted," how "buzzing" differs from "trembly."
Private by design: everything happens on this page. Nothing you click is sent or stored anywhere.
Optional: a 30-second body scan first
- Settle. Let your eyes soften and take one slow breath, a little longer on the exhale.
- Scan. Move your attention slowly from head to toe. Don’t fix anything — just notice what’s there.
- Name. Come back to the wheel and find the words closest to what you found.
Hard to settle? Two minutes with the breathing pacer first can help.
Tip: choosing a body system zooms that section — much easier to read on a phone. The center of the wheel brings you back out. You can also Tab through the words and press Enter to choose.
Right now I notice…
Next step: mark where you feel these on the interactive body map — sensation plus location is the full somatic picture.
Why name sensations?
Naming a sensation precisely — "prickly," not just "pain"; "fluttery," not just "anxious" — changes your relationship to it. Attention sharpens, the nervous system settles, and something formless becomes workable. This is a cornerstone skill of somatic psychology: research on affect labeling shows that putting inner experience into words calms the brain's alarm response. Try tuning into your body for a few minutes a day and matching what you find against this wheel; therapists, consider assigning it as somatic journaling homework.
This wheel appears as the Sensations Wheel in The Healing Trauma Workbook (Wong, 2023), where it accompanies Practice 17, "Naming Sensations." It is the body-side companion to the Feelings Wheel: one names emotions, this one names the raw sensations underneath them. Feel free to use and share with credit.
Common questions
What is the Sensations Wheel?
It’s an interactive version of the Sensations Wheel from The Healing Trauma Workbook — about 150 words for physical sensations, organized by body system. Start at the center, move outward until a word matches what you actually feel, and click the words that fit. The page turns your selections into an “I notice…” statement you can copy, download as an image, or save as a printable PDF handout. On a phone, tap a body system to zoom that section of the wheel.
Is what I click private?
Yes. The wheel runs entirely in your browser — nothing you click is sent to a server or stored anywhere. If you copy your statement or download the image, it goes only to your own clipboard or device.
How is this different from the Feelings Wheel?
The Feelings Wheel names emotions — angry, sad, joyful. This wheel names the raw physical sensations underneath them — tightness, warmth, buzzing, heaviness. In somatic work the two go together: the body’s signal usually comes first, and the emotion is what you make of it.
What if I can’t feel much in my body at all?
That’s common, especially after trauma or long stretches of stress — and words like “numb,” “blank,” and “absent” are on the wheel for exactly this reason. Naming what little you notice still counts, and vocabulary tends to grow with practice. Go slowly, and if tuning inward feels flooding or distressing rather than settling, pause and consider doing this work alongside a therapist.
For therapists: how to document EMDR sessions — the interoceptive vocabulary that shows up in EMDR notes.
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