8 Dimensions of Wellness Worksheet

What are the eight dimensions of wellness?

Wellness is a dynamic process that impacts every aspect of our lives, influencing how we feel, think, and engage with the world. When prioritizing wellness, we are better equipped to handle stress, form meaningful connections, and pursue personal growth. When neglected, individuals may experience imbalances that affect both mental and physical health.

The eight dimensions of wellness are physical, emotional, occupational, environmental, social, spiritual, intellectual, and financial (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2016). These wellness dimensions are the aspects of a person's life that make up their overall wellness and are critical factors for mental health therapists to examine when checking on their clients. They help identify what clients need to get to a point where they are happy and satisfied in everyday life.

Here are the eight dimensions of wellness in brief:

1. Physical wellness: This aspect focuses on how the client maintains physical health, such as a healthy body through exercises and other physical activities, diet and eating habits, and medical consultations and care.
2. Emotional wellness: This concerns the client's ability to express healthy emotional wellness, whether they have healthy relationships, and how they cope with the trials and tribulations that life throws their way. Emotional health plays a significant role in one's personal life.
3. Occupational wellness: It revolves around one's ability to find fulfillment, personal satisfaction, and contentment in one's work, maintain a positive work environment, and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
4. Environmental wellness: It concerns the client's immediate space and other spaces they happen to occupy. Do they find themselves in safe, comfortable environments? Or do they happen to be in spaces that don't contribute anything positive to their wellness?
5. Social wellness: This aspect focuses on the client's ability to build and maintain positive relationships and connections with their family, friends, or new people they meet by circumstance. It also focuses on whether the client belongs in healthy communities and participates in them positively.
6. Spiritual wellness: It concerns the client's spiritual well-being and ability to find a sense of purpose in life, meaning for themselves and their actions. Good spiritual health develops a healthy connection with something greater than oneself, whether faith, nature, or something else.
7. Intellectual wellness: It has something to do with the client's intellectual health, which includes the client's ability to enjoy learning and engage in mentally stimulating activities that promote critical thinking skills and mental growth.
8. Financial wellness: This is the ability to properly make informed decisions about spending, saving, and investing one's hard-earned money. When given attention, it can help an individual successfully manage financial expenses and secure one's financial future.

To properly recognize how a person is doing with these eight dimensions, the worksheet was created to foster a healthy lifestyle.

How to use the 8 Dimensions of Wellness Worksheet

By following these steps, you can facilitate a comprehensive assessment and goal-setting process for each dimension of wellness:

Step 1: Download the template

Send your clients the 8 Dimensions of Wellness Worksheet as a template or a printed copy. Ensure they have the correct version and access to either a digital or physical format, depending on their preference.

Step 2: Guide your client in filling out their details

Instruct your clients to enter their personal information at the top of the worksheet, including their name, age, gender, and current date. This step personalizes their assessment and helps track their progress.

Step 3: Facilitate the assessment of each dimension

Encourage your clients to carefully review each dimension of wellness and respond to the guide questions. Ask them to describe their current status for each area, set realistic goals for improvement, and identify specific actions they can take. Offer support and clarification as needed to ensure they accurately reflect on each dimension.

Step 4: Assist with reflection and planning

After completing the worksheet, help your clients reflect on their overall balance and identify which dimensions require the most attention. Guide them in prioritizing the upcoming month and developing a plan to track their progress. This will provide a clear focus and actionable steps for improvement.

When would one typically use this 8 Dimensions of Wellness Worksheet?

This worksheet is ideal for therapists, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and anyone specializing in wellness and mental health. Clients will benefit most, as they can self-assess their wellness across eight dimensions. Here's when it can be largely used:

Goal setting

Use the worksheet to help clients set specific, measurable goals related to their wellness. By assessing their current status, clients can work with professionals to establish realistic objectives for improvement in areas such as emotional balance or occupational satisfaction. This structured approach supports their journey toward enhanced wellness and encourages a commitment to lifelong learning.

Self-reflection

Encourage clients to use the worksheet for self-reflection between sessions. This practice allows them to assess their wellness and recognize patterns or changes independently. Self-reflection fosters personal insight and reinforces the client's role in their mental health journey, complementing the professional support they receive.

Progress monitoring

Regularly administering the worksheet allows professionals to track client wellness changes over time. This helps evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and adjust strategies as needed. Monitoring progress in each dimension offers insights into how well clients manage their mental health and contributes to ongoing wellness efforts.

What are the benefits of using the wellness worksheet?

Here are the benefits of using the wellness worksheet:

It helps with creating a tailor-fitted plan for the client.

By identifying which dimensions your client needs to work on and what their ratings are for each dimension, you'll be able to use all of that as the basis for your plan.

It can also help shape the discussions of each session.

Engaging with the worksheet will give the therapist opportunities to identify which of the eight dimensions their client is okay with or successful in, as well as what needs some work. Therapists can formulate their questions based on the client's answers to better understand the client and how they view themselves based on their worksheet answers.

It can help the client open up and reflect on themselves better.

As stated earlier in the guide, getting a client to open up might be tough. Worksheets do help with this. Discussing the eight dimensions may help a client understand how important wellness is in relation to mental health and when seeking medical care. By discussing this and handing them the worksheet, they might become more motivated to engage with therapy and find the inspiration they need to make positive changes in their lives.

Reference

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2016). Creating a healthier life: A step-by-step guide to wellness. https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/sma16-4958.pdf