When thirty-five professionals discover their psychosocial skills through creative experience

At the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine, educators, teachers, caregivers, and cultural actors experienced together what it truly means to develop psychosocial skills (PSS).

This article relates the interprofessional seminar that I co-designed, “Developing psychosocial skills through cultural and digital media,” held on January 12, 2026, at the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Limoges. It took place within the framework of the 2025-2028 territorial strategy led by the DTPJJ Limousin in partnership with the DRAC, the ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the CEMEA, the FOL 87, and Promotion Santé Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Here, I share my methods for activating collective intelligence in service of public policy implementation.

A room too small for an unprecedented gathering

On January 12, 2026, at nine-thirty, David Redon, Cultural and Territorial Action advisor, opened the day at the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Limoges. He almost apologized for the cramped space: the capacity had not been designed to accommodate so many people. Thirty-five people had registered, coming from services and institutions that usually do not meet in the same room. Educators from the Youth Judicial Protection service (PJJ) rubbed shoulders with nurses from the ARS, teachers from National Education, social workers from Child Social Assistance, integration counselors, cultural coordinators, and representatives from the Mission Locale, mutual aid societies, and the Limoges University Hospital.

I have been familiar with this type of gathering for the more than twenty years I have worked in the field of artistic and cultural pedagogy. But this one had a particularity: most participants did not know what psychosocial skills were. They had heard the term, perhaps read a few documents, but the concept remained abstract. This is precisely what made the day interesting. We were not going to explain what PSS are to them. We were going to make them live it.

Rachel Pieteraerents, territorial director of the PJJ Limousin, took the floor after David Redon. She reminded us that this day was part of a broader dynamic: the 2023-2027 intersectoral roadmap for children and adolescents under protection. She evoked the culture-justice partnership which, since Robert Badinter, has made cultural engagement a lever for reintegration. Anne-Laure Tanchoux, from the ARS, completed the picture: health promotion policies long relied on the transmission of messages. Now, we work on protective factors—on what works within individuals.

The diversity of those present struck me. There were people who work daily with adolescents in great difficulty, mental health professionals, popular education organizers, and teachers. Some knew each other; others were meeting for the first time. One participant later told me they had never seen so many different partners gathered in one room.

What the majority did not know at the start of the morning

I had prepared a theoretical presentation on psychosocial skills. The three categories defined by the World Health Organization since the 1990s: cognitive skills (self-awareness, self-control, constructive decision-making), emotional skills (awareness of emotions and stress, emotional regulation, stress management), and social skills (constructive communication, developing constructive relationships, conflict resolution). I had planned to go through this part quickly to move toward experimentation.

But from the very first exchanges, I realized that the level of knowledge was very heterogeneous. For some, PSS were obvious—they had made it their profession. For others, it was almost the first time they had heard the term. I decided to modify my program. It was necessary to lay the foundations, to explain where this concept came from and why it has become central to public policy.

The intervention of Marie-Noëlle Clément during the DTPJJ Limousin territorial seminar on November 27, 2025, had established a valuable theoretical framework that I partially revisited. This psychiatrist, a founding member of the “Association 3-6-9-12+” alongside Serge Tisseron, developed the idea that empathy is both a psychosocial skill and the foundation of all others. She distinguished empathy from sympathy and compassion, showing that empathy is built through successive layers, that each stage can be worked on, and that it is never too late.

I showed a video clip of her intervention. In the room, the attention was palpable. Participants took notes. What touched them, as I understood from the questions that followed, was the idea that social empathy can be taught, that the environment is decisive, and that self-empathy is the mirror of empathy for others. This last point is essential: we can only develop empathy toward others if we are capable of understanding ourselves, recognizing our own emotions, and our own limits.

Why I gave up on the planned exercise

I had prepared a paired speaking exercise. The principle is simple: you move through the space, stop at a signal, pair up with the nearest person, and for two minutes, one explains to the other how psychosocial skills relate to their job. The other listens without interrupting. Then you switch. This exercise works well with varied audiences, including young people. It allows for the elaboration of thought without the fear of being judged, as there is no speaking in front of the large group.

But time was pressing, and I absolutely wanted to do the collective creative experience. I decided to describe the pairs exercise without doing it—so that participants could use it in their own practices—and move directly to photographic creation.

This decision illustrates a principle I apply constantly: the framework must adapt to the group, not the other way around. You can have the most beautiful program in the world, but if the group is not ready, if time is lacking, or if the energy isn’t there, you must know how to change your plans. This isn’t improvisation; it’s listening. And that, too, is a psychosocial skill.

The photo workshop: ten minutes to create together

I proposed that participants form teams of five or six people. Each team would take a single photo—a staged photo—somewhere in the DRAC building. This photo had to tell us something, make us feel something, or make us understand something about the subject of psychosocial skills. It would have no title. The title would be the first names of the people who made it.

I gave a instruction that might seem counter-intuitive: do not start by discussing what you are going to do. Start by finding a location. A staircase, a hallway, a corner. It is the location that will give you ideas. If you start with ideas, you will look for a location that matches them, and that will take too much time. By starting from the location, you allow yourself to be inspired by the outside world, by “otherness.”

This method draws on work in cognitive science showing that creativity often emerges from external constraints rather than prior reflection. John Dewey, the American pragmatist philosopher, showed as early as the start of the 20^th century that experience is central to the construction of thought (Dewey, *Art as Experience*, 1934). More recently, Olivier Houdé’s work on cognitive development confirmed that learning involves action and confrontation with the environment.

The teams fanned out across the building. I warned them: you have ten minutes. It is very short. But it is intentional. When you have little time, you don’t have time to put up barriers. You act. And often, what comes out is much better than what would have been produced through long reflection.

What the photos revealed

At five past noon, everyone was back. The photos had been uploaded to a shared digital space. I projected them one by one in the dark. And I proposed something unusual: the authors were not the ones who would comment on their photo. It was the others.

This reversal is essential. In most creative workshops, participants are asked to explain what they intended to do. But in doing so, the work is reduced to the author’s intention. Yet an image, a creation, always exceeds the one who made it. It contains meanings the author did not anticipate. And it is the gaze of others that reveals them.

One photo showed a person alone on a staircase, shot from a low angle. Someone saw isolation, the difficulty of climbing. Another saw aspiration, the upward momentum. A third person noticed the light coming from above, like a promise. The author of the photo, silent, discovered dimensions they had not consciously put into their image.

Another photo featured boxes stacked in a corridor. Someone saw disorder, a mental shambles. Another saw homogeneity within chaos, coherence despite profusion. I pointed out that the gestures in the image were very gentle, that every element seemed to be in its rightful place. We spoke of cooperation and collective work.

What was happening at that moment was precisely what we seek to develop in psychosocial skills. Participants listened to one another, welcomed viewpoints different from their own, and discovered that their creation had a value they hadn’t perceived. And this happened within a benevolent, judgment-free framework where all interpretations were legitimate.

The process of symbolization in action

I made sure all the photos were signed with the first names of the authors. This is not a detail. An image without a signature is an anonymous, interchangeable object. A signed image is a creation that belongs to someone, engaging a subjectivity.

This mechanism is called symbolization. We create an object outside of ourselves, and the fact that this object exists helps to build us. Serge Tisseron’s work on images and their psychic effects has widely documented this process (Tisseron, *Psychanalyse de l’image*, 1995). But for symbolization to work, the object must be recognized as ours. If no one knows who took the photo, it cannot play its role in identity construction.

During the collective viewing exercise, I observed the participants. When it was their photo being projected, they were tense. They often felt the other photos were better than theirs. They weren’t very proud of what they had done. And then the comments came, and others saw things they hadn’t seen. Positive, rich, profound things.

This moment is a small seed being sown. Participants don’t necessarily accept it right away. They might tell themselves the others are just being nice, or that it’s “nonsense,” that their photo isn’t that good. But the seed is planted. In a social space, before witnesses, their creation was recognized as having value. And this recognition, even if not immediately integrated, leaves a trace.

The afternoon: feedback and collective intelligence

After the lunch break, the afternoon began with three ten-minute experience reports. Édouard Nebie, from Promotion Santé Haute-Vienne, presented the summary of a territorial diagnostic carried out with three hundred professionals. This diagnostic showed that PSS are an identified need in the field, but that professionals often feel ill-equipped regarding their implementation.

Thibaut Genet, from the Fédération des Œuvres Laïques 87, presented the “Information Watchers’ Path,” an open-source tool on fake news that mobilizes psychosocial skills. What interested me in his presentation was how media education can be a lever for developing critical thinking, empathy, and the ability to understand another’s point of view.

Évanne Jeanne-Roze, from CEMEA Nouvelle-Aquitaine, testified to a concrete intervention with a PJJ group. He spoke of creative projects—graffiti, slam poetry, shows—where young people are the actors. He touched on the question of how living spaces are arranged, which is often neglected: when the walls of an institution do not reflect the lives of those who live there, how can we be surprised if they do not feel at home?

The World Café: four tables, four themes

The World Café format is well-known in group facilitation. Several tables are set up, each with a theme and a facilitator. Participants rotate from table to table, spending twenty minutes at each. What was said by previous groups enriches the discussion for the next.

The four tables focused on: methodology (how to build PSS interventions?), professional posture (what posture to adopt? how to develop one’s own PSS?), tools and resources (which tools? what resources are missing?), and perspectives for collaboration (how to work together? what community of practice?).

At the methodology table, hosted by Anne-Laure Tanchoux, participants worked on the idea that developing PSS is a specific activity conducted with a specific posture in a favorable environment. The activity starts from the needs of the public, seeks to make participants “knowers” of themselves, and prioritizes the process over the objective.

At the professional posture table, hosted by Évanne Jeanne-Roze, a phrase emerged that then circulated through the other groups: “meeting and making humanity common.” Discussions centered on the place of vulnerability in work, the right to make mistakes, and the question of whether one should separate the professional from the personal.

At the tools and resources table, hosted by Thibaut Genet, participants realized that any tool can be used to work on PSS—photo-elicitation, podcasts, social media, games—provided they are used with the right posture. The need for a network to centralize knowledge and share experiences was strongly expressed.

At the collaboration perspectives table, hosted by David Nguyen from the DTPJJ, participants were unanimous in their desire to continue this dynamic. One colleague suggested institutionalizing this meeting once a year. Others suggested more frequent meetings, every three or six months.

What was learned, what was lived

Finally, we moved to the final summary. The four facilitators presented a synthesis of what was discussed at their tables. But what struck me was less the content of the summaries than the atmosphere in the room. The participants were tired—it was an intense day. But they were also nourished, connected to one another, and enthusiastic.

Samera Zemani, technical advisor in health promotion at the DTPJJ, took the floor to close the day. She reminded us that this shared strategy will roll out over three years, that other meetings and training sessions will be offered, and that the goal is to create a community of practice that brings these issues to life within the territory.

What happened during this day went beyond the simple transmission of knowledge. The participants lived what it means to develop psychosocial skills. They lived it in the photo workshop, where they had to cooperate, trust, and risk creating something together. They lived it in the cross-perspectives on the images, where they discovered that their work had value recognized by others. They lived it in the World Café discussions, where they shared their doubts, questions, and desires.

What artistic practices actually mobilize

For over twenty years, I have observed what happens when you ask people to create together—people with no artistic training, who often think they aren’t creative, who are afraid of looking ridiculous. And I observe that, within a suitable framework, these people produce works of true value, sometimes in just a few minutes.

The framework is decisive. It must be both demanding and benevolent. Demanding because creation requires engagement, concentration, and risk-taking. Benevolent because without psychological safety, no one can risk creating. This double imperative directly aligns with the conditions for developing psychosocial skills: a secure environment that permits expression.

Artistic practices naturally mobilize the three categories of psychosocial skills. Cognitive skills are called upon in reflecting on what one wants to express, in making decisions in the face of constraints, and in the ability to adapt when something doesn’t work. Emotional skills are called upon in recognizing what one feels, in managing the stress of showing one’s work, and in accepting one’s limits. Social skills are called upon in cooperation with others, in listening to feedback, and in building a collective work.

But a word of caution: artistic practices do not automatically develop psychosocial skills. Everything depends on the posture of the person offering them, how the framework is built, and what is done with the productions. An art workshop can easily be experienced as humiliating, competitive, or anxiety-inducing. It is the responsibility of the professional to create the conditions for the experience to be constructive.

Empathy as the foundation: back to Marie-Noëlle Clément’s contributions

Among all psychosocial skills, empathy holds a special place. Marie-Noëlle Clément showed this during her intervention on November 27, 2025: empathy is both one psychosocial skill among others and the foundation upon which all others rest. Without empathy, there is no constructive communication. Without empathy, there is no conflict resolution. Without empathy, there is no emotional regulation—because regulating one’s emotions requires recognizing them, which is a form of self-empathy.

The developmental model of empathy proposed by Serge Tisseron distinguishes several layers: affective empathy (feeling what the other feels), cognitive empathy (understanding what the other thinks), and reciprocal empathy (recognizing that the other can also understand what we feel). Each layer can be worked on at any age. It is never too late to develop one’s empathy.

What struck me during this day on January 12 was how spontaneously the participants mobilized their empathy in the photo viewing exercise. No one asked them to show empathy. But the proposed framework—looking at the work of others without judgment, seeking what one sees in it, welcoming interpretations different from one’s own—naturally invited this skill.

What remains to be built

This day is only a beginning. It is part of a three-year process, co-constructed between the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the Territorial Direction of the PJJ Limousin. Other meetings will take place. Training will be offered. Projects will be piloted with young people.

The challenge is to move from a one-off event to regular practice. Participants left with ideas, contacts, and a better understanding of what psychosocial skills are. But what will make the difference is what they do tomorrow, in their daily professional lives, with the young people and colleagues they support.

The community of practice being built in this territory is a tool for that. It allows people to break out of isolation, to share their doubts and successes, and to pool resources. It also allows for maintaining standards, as developing psychosocial skills requires constant work on oneself and one’s practices.

To conclude: process before result

If I had to summarize what happened on January 12, 2026, I would say that thirty-five professionals lived, for the duration of a day, what it means to work on psychosocial skills through cultural media. They did not just understand it intellectually. They felt it in their bodies, in their emotions, and in their relationships with other participants.

This experiential approach has been at the heart of my practice for over twenty years. It is based on a conviction: you don’t learn psychosocial skills like you learn a lesson. You develop them by practicing them, in situations that demand them, with feedback that allows for progress. The process matters more than the result.

The photos taken that day may not have great aesthetic value. That was not the objective. What matters is what transpired during their creation and their collective viewing. The micro-learnings, the moments of realization, the connections between people who would never have met otherwise. These invisible traces are the true achievements of the day.