A November 2025 survey found that most US consumers feel wellness culture is quietly demanding they be perfect, and yet they keep reaching for their wallets regardless, which is worth a moment's thought if your marketing lives anywhere near the word "wellness".
Practices that lean on aspiration and glow-up language should know their audience may already feel nagged, not inspired, by exactly that tone.
| Original Research | US consumers report that wellness culture pushes them toward an unreachable standard of perfection, even while their spending on wellness keeps rising |
|---|---|
| Source | https://www.emarketer.com/content/consumers-feel-pressured-by-wellness-culture--even-health-spending-climbs |
| Overview | eMarketer summarised findings from a survey run by Coefficient Capital and Toluna, which asked US consumers how wellness culture makes them feel and where their money is going. |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publisher | Media, eMarketer (survey conducted by Coefficient Capital and Toluna) |
| Relevance to Wellbeing | The finding speaks directly to how wellness businesses talk about improvement, since the same pressure consumers describe feeling is often what marketing copy is trying to sell them. |
| Our Verdict | Too early to tell the underlying spending trend is good news, but the pressure finding is a warning shot for anyone still writing "before and after" copy. |
| Our Summary |
|
| Our Geo View | US-specific consumer sentiment data; attitudes toward wellness culture and spending may differ elsewhere. |
eMarketer wrote up a survey, run by Coefficient Capital with Toluna, which found most Americans feel wellness culture is pushing them toward perfection, while their spending on wellness carries on regardless.
eMarketer, published 2026, reporting on a survey fielded in November 2025 by Coefficient Capital and Toluna.
Credibility flags: survey methodology and fieldwork attributed to Toluna, sample size not disclosed in the eMarketer write-up, publisher is a media outlet reporting on industry-commissioned research.
A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.
Marked down slightly on method confidence since the sample size wasn't disclosed, but scored well on practice fit and recency given it's a fresh 2025 survey landing squarely in wellness territory.
| Practice type | Relevance | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|
| Coaching | High | Rewrite aspirational copy so it reads as support, not scoreboard. |
| Therapy | High | Lead with relief and rest, not improvement targets. |
| Training | Medium | Balance results-talk with permission to go slower. |
| Alternative Healing | Medium | Drop urgency language around "falling behind". |
| Clinical | Medium | Check intake materials don't read as judgment before the first appointment. |
| Retreat/Centre | High | Position offerings around rest and reset, not correction. |
Best before: revisit when eMarketer or Coefficient Capital publish a follow-up wellness sentiment survey, expected roughly annually; until then, check back via eMarketer for updates.
If your marketing has ever quietly implied a client should be further along by now, this is the survey that explains why they flinched.
A good sign. Curious practitioners tend to love the discovery call - where our visual river, story garden and listening wind make beautiful sense, and your ambitions get the attention they're owed. Coffee while we talk. Oat milk?
≡