As a participant twisted a dried mugwort leaf between her fingers, its familiar medicinal scent filled the air, bringing tears to her eyes. Like that, when participants piece together their own artistic creations, they'd find a release of certain emotions they've held back, and are healed by the power of nature.

This intimate moment unfolded at a special eco-art therapy exhibition on the East China Normal University campus in Shanghai, offering a gentle emotional outlet for urban dwellers grappling with anxiety.

Against the backdrop of a significant rise in emotional distress among the general public, particularly China's younger generations, new approaches to emotional healing are breaking barriers in traditional psychological counseling and bringing mental health care into daily life: eco-art therapy integrated with mindfulness and traditional Chinese culture, and fragrance-based emotional regulation backed by neuroscientific and empirical research.

According to clinical data, emotional issues are no longer confined to severe cases requiring specialized treatment, says Qiao Ying, an expert from the Shanghai Mental Health Center.

"In the past, people thought you needed to see a doctor only if your condition was serious. But now, the number of people experiencing sub-threshold depression and anxiety has increased significantly," Qiao notes, adding that the number of children and adolescents seeking treatment for mental health has risen each year.

To address demand, the eco-art therapy exhibition curated by Yan Wenhua, a professor at the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science of East China Normal University, explores a low-cost, accessible healing path. The exhibition, running through July 3, features hundreds of works created by ordinary people in nearly 40 public healing activities organized by Yan's team recently.