[The game of houses in the Métissages group]

The house is a symbol strongly invested by the children we receive in transcultural devices. Its structure echoes both the psychological and physical structure of the child but also that of family ties. The clinical situation of a family from Tunisia makes it possible to describe the system of the Métissages group and the symbol of the "mother house", both through drawings and games.

[From vague anguish to the face of the monster, the experience of a sibling group]

For two years Damien took part in the sibling group at the medico-social action centre in Ivry-sur-Seine where his sister is cared for. A look back at the boy's development through the presentation of some of his drawings and the stories he has told about them. It seems to us essential to welcome the effects of the psychological shock of the families, induced by the handicap, and for this reason the siblings' group offers itself as a support to the narrative processes.

[The Dedyco device, a therapy of the mother-child bond through storytelling in a transcultural setting]

The device Dedyco is a mixture of two practices clinical storytelling workshops and cross-cultural therapy consultation for families. Tales, graphic productions, staging games allow mothers and their children to share a moment out of time, in the footsteps of wonderful characters.

[Drawing in the elaboration of psychological trauma in a humanitarian context]

In humanitarian contexts where children are exposed to major traumatic events, psychological care is fundamental to enable them to escape psychological and social isolation. A group care system, that also offers time dedicated to drawing, shows how children can find the necessary internal and external resources that will help them to restore their confidence in a possible future.

[A street art adventure in hospital]

As part of a 'Culture in hospital' initiative, street art was displayed in the grounds of Théophile-Roussel hospital, a public mental healthcare facility in Montesson. Professional graffiti artists organised a street art festival, aimed at patients, children, teenagers, adults and the medical and educational staff. This article describes this innovative initiative and the role of cultural and artistic projects in care.

[Drawing, a tool to use with unaccompanied foreign minors]

Supporting unaccompanied foreign minors requires a different clinical approach. These youngsters must be given individualised support to help them make the transition from exile and loss, to an existence as an individual, yet still a son or daughter. The drawing, as a transcultural and atemporal imprint, constitutes a tool enabling these young people to bring to the surface their unconscious thought processes, to exist and to come into being with dignity.

[The importance of drawing in adolescence]

Teenagers like to draw. A drawing is a fundamental object of creativity in the process of re-construction and change typical of this period. However, theoretical approaches often consider that the evolution of the stages of drawing come to an end in adolescence. It is important to consider the practical and clinical benefit of drawing and to develop expression-based activities which can be carried out with this population.

[Between filiation and affiliation, constructing an identity through drawing in anorexia]

Claire, a French-Korean teenager suffering from anorexia, favours drawing as a means of self-expression. Her graphic creations illustrate the search for identity of this child of migrants. Struggling with an impossible identification linked to her filiation, drawing represents for her a real object of mediation. It gives meaning to what dwells within her and constitutes the medium of her creativity.

[Representation of the body through drawing in adolescence]

In a writing group, in hospital, teenagers' drawings help to evoke the body and its representation, at a time of life when all the changes to the body have an impact on the processes of constructing an identity. It is thereby possible to see how the teenager understands this body which expresses itself inseparably from the imaginary and the symbolic.

[Teenagers' drawings in transcultural consultations]

The place of teenagers' drawings has been studied as part of a transcultural consultation, based on the creativity of the children of migrants. When speaking is difficult, drawings enable teenagers to show another dimension of their internal world. Aravin, a young Tamil boy, who lacked the necessary words, was able to express all the complexity of his thoughts through his drawings, finally being able to formulate in the group the difficult situations which he was drawing.

[Teenagers creating art]

Teenagers need to interpret the world around them, sometimes in a completely different way to that in which, as children, they represented external reality. Some like drawing. They can use it to express their thoughts on death, sexuality or freedom. Their creative capacities are immense: they are creating art.

[The issue of death drawn by children]

Embracing death and finding the right words to represent it is a dangerous exercise when the death is traumatic and when it remains suspended on emotions and affects. The cross-cultural consultation enables the trauma to be developed and makes room for rituals and words. The children's drawings come to represent the traumatic transfer of the connections and fears, and the need to reconstruct a cultural cocoon.

[Drawing with children in situations of war]

In situations of conflict, children are subjected to or witness acts of violence and traumatic events. In the care systems put in place in this context, drawing is an effective means of enabling children to express their emotions and favours a process of restoration.

[Stories and drawings by children after the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris]

Through the stories and drawings of children in a medical-psychological centre, it is possible to explore their psychological representations of the terrorist attacks which took place in Paris in January 2015. This work highlights the need to rethink the methods of care provided to these children in order to adapt them to their specific needs.

[The drawing as a therapeutic mediation tool for gifted children]

Intellectual precocity arouses a number of preconceived ideas. While it labels the children concerned as gifted and destined to become exceptional adults, it confines and prescribes and does not guarantee academic success. Based on the hypothesis of the suffering of these children, mediation through drawing is a valuable therapeutic tool.

[The drawing, an indicator of language divides]

The drawing is used as a mediation tool in the framework of a cross-cultural consultation "bilingual group". Clinical reference materials show that this mediation is suitable for children having difficulties switching between the language spoken at home and that spoken at school.

[The child's voice through drawings in cross-cultural psychotherapy]

The drawing is a valuable mediation tool to encourage the active participation of the child in the cross-cultural group psychotherapeutic process. It enables the therapists and, ultimately, the family, to take into account their psychological movements.

[Draw me a donation, ethical reflection with children in pediatrics]

An organ and tissue removal coordination department organised a drawing competition for the children in the paediatric unit, on the theme: "Donation, passing on the baton". This ethical reflection combining respect for the children, interaction with the parents and multi-disciplinary collaboration provided an opportunity for exchanges on the topic of organ donation and encouraged a different approach on the part of the medical team.