China’s middle class is stressed. Can its growing mental health industry lend a helping hand?
- Demand for psychological counselling has increased in China as anxieties mount – and the industry is expanding to meet it
- Worries over economic and social standing are bleeding into interpersonal relationships, professionals say, creating a need for licensed services
In the past few years, psychological counsellor Huang Jing has watched her business thrive.
With any other industry, that would be cause for celebration – China has made private enterprise a priority as it pushes for sustained economic recovery – but a higher demand for mental health services carries other, more troubling implications.
Now, she has expanded to Hangzhou, operating three offices in the Yangtze Delta tech hub.
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Nearly 3 years of Covid curbs take their toll on China’s middle class with many seeking counselling
The rapid growth in businesses like Huang’s, lucrative though it may be, reflects a rise in conditions like anxiety and depression among the public – including the middle class, widely regarded as foundational to China’s economic growth and social progress.
