Abstract

This research suggests the elaboration of an emotional intelligence development program of a preadolescent population utilizing art-therapy. This form of intelligence is composed of numerous positive abilities that lead to a better personal and social functioning. The present study enables to become familiar with this dimension of the human being. Although only a preleminary general view, it allows to visit the realm of art-therapy, of psychology and education to discover how the experts of these disciplines view the emotional experiences of these individuals. A probing into the phenomenon of emotionnal intelligence and emotions serve as the basis for a construction of a preventive and educative program. The preadolescence aspect is observed to examine the needs of this population concerning their affective development. The art-therapy workshop is an intermediary environment that facilitates the discovery of emotional intelligence notions through experimentation such as exercices, artistic activities or various games proposed and supervised by the art-therapist. The program is structured in a detailed way describing the contents of each session and its activities. A clinical observation of this program is described to demonstrate the relevance of this project. An analysis of the results obtained from these sessions with preadolescents allows to identify the needs of this youth group and offers new interesting leads into research for eventual future art therapy studies.