To examine the effectiveness of freehand mandala painting group counseling in enhancing the sense of meaning in life among female college students through an empirical intervention study.The Purpose in Life Test(PIL),Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale(GAD-7),and Self-Rating Depression Scale(SDS)were administered to female college students at a university in Shanghai. Sixty participants with scores below the norm on the sense of meaning in life were selected and randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group after matching. The control group received no intervention,while the experimental group underwent an 8-session freehand mandala painting group counseling intervention over 4 weeks,with two 90-minute sessions per week. Pre- and post-intervention assessments of the sense of meaning in life, anxiety,and depression levels were conducted for both groups,and statistical analyses were performed. Before the intervention, there were no significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of sense of meaning in life,anxiety,or depression scores(p > 0.05).After the intervention,the experimental group showed a higher sense of meaning in life and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to pre-intervention levels.Additionally,the experimental group demonstrated a significantly higher sense of meaning in life and lower anxiety and depression levels than the control group.No significant changes were observed in the control group before and after the intervention.Freehand mandala painting group counseling effectively enhances the sense of meaning in life and reduces anxiety and depression levels among female college students.