Synodeo - Ethics & Conduct

Preamble

Support practice is a professional relationship through which a person is helped, by listening, dialogue, the transmission of knowledge, or techniques of change, to understand a situation, develop a skill, reach a goal, or move through a transition. This relationship draws on the trust of the person being supported: to varying degrees, it exposes what they experience, think, feel, or are trying to become.

This Code sets out the values, rules, and procedures that govern this relationship, at every level of competence and for every method of support that falls outside the field of clinical care. It pursues three aims: to protect the person being supported, to protect the practitioner in the exercise of their practice, and to guarantee public and client trust in the profession.

It applies to every certified or trainee practitioner, with no exception for method or level. It does not replace the law, which it supplements and clarifies; in the event of a conflict, the law prevails. Nor does it replace the codes of ethics specific to any professional bodies a practitioner may separately choose to join, whose requirements may be more demanding than this Code's but never less so.

Title 0 - Scope and definitions

Article 1 - Scope

This Code applies to any support relationship based on listening, questioning, the transmission of knowledge or skills, or the mobilization of the psychological, cognitive, or behavioral resources of the person being supported - whatever method is used (interview, maieutic questioning, techniques of change, work on representations or emotions, role play, educational transmission).
It applies whenever this relationship neither aims at nor results in diagnosing or treating an established medical, psychiatric, or psychological disorder (see Article 14).
It applies to the practitioner throughout the relationship: from initial contact to closure, including any follow-up after the support relationship ends.
It also applies to exchanges the practitioner may have about the person being supported as part of their supervision or continuing education, subject to the confidentiality rules of Article 12.
It applies regardless of the setting - self-employed, salaried, non-profit, or institutional - and regardless of the format - in person, remote, individual, or group.

Article 2 - Definitions

Support practice: a professional relationship through which a practitioner helps a person clarify a situation, develop a skill, reach a goal, or move through a transition, without aiming to diagnose or treat a disorder.
Practitioner: any person carrying out this relationship on a professional basis or as part of certifying training, whatever their title, method, or level of certification.
Person being supported: the direct beneficiary or beneficiaries of the support relationship.
Client (commissioning party): an individual or organization that funds, arranges, or requests the support without necessarily being its direct beneficiary (employer, organization, institution, legal representative of a minor).
Situational assessment: a methodological analysis of the situation, request, resources, and context of the person being supported, carried out by the practitioner to guide their practice. It is a central act of support practice and is in no way a medical diagnosis.
Clinical diagnosis: the identification of a disorder or pathology in the medical, psychiatric, or psychological sense. It falls outside the scope of support practice and is the exclusive domain of a qualified healthcare professional.
Clinical care: any intervention aimed at diagnosing, treating, relieving, or preventing a medical, psychiatric, or psychological disorder. Clinical care falls outside the scope of this Code.
Supervision: regularly consulting a qualified third party to analyze one's practice with perspective, for reflective and formative - not evaluative - purposes.
Vulnerable person: a minor, or a person whose capacity for judgment, understanding, or decision-making is temporarily or permanently impaired.
Conflict of interest: any situation in which a practitioner's personal, financial, family, hierarchical, or relational interest is likely to impair, or appear to impair, their objectivity and professional judgment.
Sensitive data: data relating to health, sex life, political, philosophical, or religious opinions, or a person's origin.
Commercial dispute: a disagreement over the performance, price, or terms of the service contract between the practitioner and the person being supported or the client, distinct from an ethical breach (see Article 31).
Professional mediator: an independent, impartial third party, listed where applicable on a register of approved mediators, tasked with facilitating the amicable resolution of a commercial dispute between the parties, outside of any judicial or disciplinary process.

Title I - Core principles

Article 3 - Dignity and autonomy of the person

The practitioner recognizes the person being supported as the sole decision-maker over their choices, goals, and pace of change. They never substitute their own judgment for the person's, never impose their own values or solutions, and ensure that the support strengthens the person's capacity to decide for themselves rather than creating dependency on the practitioner or the method.

Article 4 - Beneficence and non-maleficence

The practitioner acts in the interest of the person being supported. They refrain from any act, statement, silence, or omission likely to cause harm, even where that harm would be unintentional or justified by a goal of performance, profitability, or results. Where in doubt about the possible consequences of an intervention, the practitioner refrains from acting or seeks the advice of their supervision before doing so.

Article 5 - Non-judgment and impartiality

The practitioner welcomes the person and their situation without moral, cultural, religious, or social preconceptions. They distinguish their role as practitioner from that of advisor, judge, or moral guide. Where their own personal beliefs risk interfering with the support relationship, they remain aware of this and, if necessary, refer the person to a colleague.

Article 6 - Honesty and professional integrity

The practitioner is honest about what support can and cannot achieve: they promise no outcome, conceal neither the limits of their method nor their own, and do not resort to any misleading commercial practice in presenting their services. They do not overstate their qualifications, experience, or the expected effects of their intervention.

Article 7 - Fairness, equity, and non-discrimination

The practitioner guarantees equal access to quality support, without discrimination based on a person's origin, gender, age, disability, orientation, religion, or socio-economic situation. They exercise active vigilance over their own conscious or unconscious biases, which are likely to influence their judgment or the quality of their intervention.

Title II - The support relationship

Article 8 - Informed consent

Before any support relationship begins, the practitioner ensures the person freely understands and accepts:

the purpose, goals, and intended methods of the support;
the non-clinical nature of the support and its limits (Article 14);
the confidentiality rules and their exceptions (Articles 12 and 13);
the right to end the relationship at any time, without justification and without penalty beyond what has been explicitly agreed.

This consent may be revisited at any time: the person may return to a prior agreement, in particular if the method evolves during the course of support toward a practice falling under a higher level of vigilance (Article 15).

Article 9 - Contracting

Every support relationship is subject to a clear agreement, oral or written depending on context, specifying the purpose, duration, pace, format (in person or remote), and financial terms. Where a client funds or arranges the support, their role and the extent of their access to information are clarified with them separately from the agreement given by the person being supported, who alone retains confidentiality over its content (Article 12).

Article 10 - Professional insurance

Before any practice, the practitioner takes out professional liability insurance covering the whole of their support activity, suited to the nature of the practices used and their level of vigilance (Article 15). This coverage protects the person being supported and the client from the damaging consequences of a fault, error, or negligence committed in the course of the support relationship.

The practitioner maintains this coverage without interruption throughout their activity and provides, on simple request from the person being supported, the client, or the relevant oversight body, a current certificate specifying the insurer, the scope of coverage, and its period of validity.

Article 11 - Mediation and amicable settlement of commercial disputes

Any commercial dispute arising from the contractual service relationship - disagreement over the performance of the service, fees, or agreed terms - is distinct from an ethical breach and follows its own resolution path, without prejudice to the right of the person being supported or the client to take legal action.

The practitioner informs the person being supported and the client, from the point of contracting (Article 9), of their right to use a professional mediator free of charge in the event of an unresolved commercial dispute, and provides their contact details.
Before referring the matter to the mediator, the parties make an effort to resolve the disagreement through direct, good-faith discussion.
Failing direct resolution, either party may refer the matter to the competent professional mediator, whose opinion is delivered within a reasonable time and is binding on the parties only after each has expressly accepted it.
Recourse to mediation neither interrupts nor replaces the procedure for handling ethical breaches set out in Article 31, where the commercial dispute also reveals a breach of this Code.

Title III - Confidentiality, the boundary with clinical care, and protection of persons

Article 12 - Confidentiality and professional secrecy

Everything the practitioner sees, hears, or comes to understand in the course of support is covered by an almost absolute duty of professional secrecy, in principle. They share it with a third party, including a client, only with the explicit agreement of the person being supported, except in the cases set out in Article 13.

Confidentiality extends to exchanges held in supervision, where the situation may be discussed in anonymized form: the supervisor is themselves bound by the same obligation. It also extends to any medium of storage - notes, recordings, correspondence, digital platforms, artificial intelligence tools - the security and retention of which are governed by Title V.

Article 13 - Limits of confidentiality

Confidentiality may only be lifted in the following cases, which are brought to the person's attention at the start of the support relationship:

a legal obligation to report, particularly where a minor or vulnerable person is in danger;
serious and imminent danger to the person being supported themselves or to a third party;
a judicial requisition.

In these situations, the practitioner limits disclosure to what is strictly necessary and, where possible, informs the person concerned.

Article 14 - Boundary with clinical care and diagnosis

Support practice never substitutes for medical, psychiatric, or psychotherapeutic care. The practitioner does not make a clinical diagnosis, does not treat an established or suspected disorder, and does not prescribe anything. They do, however, carry out, as a methodological and non-medical act, the situational assessment defined in Article 2, which is at the heart of every support relationship and in no way encroaches on the field of clinical care.

The practitioner explicitly positions themselves as a non-clinician to the person being supported, from the point consent is obtained (Article 8).

Article 15 - Levels of vigilance according to the nature of the practice

The level of vigilance required varies according to the nature of the technique used, regardless of the practitioner's title or specialty:

Type of practice	Examples	Level of vigilance	Warning sign
Discursive and methodological	Questioning, reformulation, goal-structuring, transmission of knowledge	Standard	Unusual, persistent signs of distress
Engaging affect or altered states of consciousness	Techniques of change, work on beliefs or emotions, deep relaxation, reprogramming, exploration of sensitive experiences	Enhanced	Emerging psychological fragility, disclosure of traumatic experience
Outside the scope	Diagnosing or treating an established medical, psychiatric, or psychological disorder	Systematic referral	Established or suspected pathology, suicide risk

For the second level, the practitioner explicitly states the non-therapeutic nature of the method from the point of consent, pays heightened attention to signs of psychological fragility, and facilitates their own recourse to supervision. For the third level, referral to a healthcare professional is systematic (Article 16).

Article 16 - Referral to a healthcare professional

As soon as a warning sign exceeds the scope of support practice - significant psychological distress, suicide risk, an established or suspected pathology - the practitioner refers the person without delay to a qualified healthcare professional. This referral is made without abruptly breaking off ongoing support where the situation allows, and is recorded in the tracking of the relationship (Article 29).

Article 17 - Conflicts of interest

As soon as they become aware of it, the practitioner identifies and discloses any conflict of interest - family, hierarchical, financial ties, or any other situation likely to impair their objectivity - to the person being supported and, where applicable, to the client. Where the conflict cannot be managed transparently and in good faith, the practitioner withdraws from the relationship and facilitates referral to another professional.

Article 18 - Multiple relationships and proximity

Holding several roles with the same person (for example, practitioner and hierarchical superior, or practitioner and family member), or supporting several people who are closely connected to one another, is assessed case by case. It is disclosed to the parties concerned and governed by an explicit agreement specifying the limits of each role. Where roles overlap, the practitioner informs the person being supported of the precise role in which they are acting at any given time.

Article 19 - Intimate and sexual relationships

Any intimate or sexual relationship with a person being supported is prohibited, throughout the support relationship and for a reasonable period after it ends, owing to the imbalance of power and trust inherent to the support relationship. This prohibition is absolute and admits no exception based on the apparent consent of the person being supported.

Article 20 - Protection of vulnerable persons and minors

Heightened vigilance is required for any support provided to a minor or to a person whose capacity for judgment is impaired. In these situations, the applicable level of confidentiality and protection is agreed with the legal representative or the client, in accordance with applicable regulations. Any knowledge of established abuse or endangerment of a minor or vulnerable person triggers an obligation to alert the competent authorities, which takes precedence over confidentiality (Article 13).

Article 21 - Use of digital tools and artificial intelligence

The use of platforms, software, or artificial intelligence tools in the support relationship is transparent: the person being supported is informed of their use, purpose, and the data they process. These tools are subject to the same vigilance, in terms of confidentiality and security, as that applied to in-person exchanges. Their use never substitutes for the practitioner's professional judgment or for the human relationship on which support is founded.

Title IV - Competence and professional development

Article 22 - Competence and limits of practice

The practitioner practices only within the limits of their certification and actual competence. Where a situation exceeds their field of competence, they inform the person being supported and refer them to a colleague or a more qualified professional.

Article 23 - Continuing education

The practitioner maintains and develops their competence throughout their career: keeping abreast of developments in knowledge, methods, and the legal frameworks of their field, regularly updating their practice, and reflectively analyzing their own work. This continuing education is recorded and can be verified.

Article 24 - Supervision

The practitioner submits to regular supervision, whatever their practice. The frequency and format of this supervision are enhanced according to the level of vigilance required by the technique used (Article 15), with no practitioner exempt from it. Supervision makes it possible to work through the real situations encountered - doubts, difficult judgment calls, relational dynamics - and not to remain alone in the face of one's blind spots.

Article 25 - Professional self-care and prevention of burnout

The practitioner acknowledges their personal limits - fatigue, life events, state of health - which are likely to affect the quality of their intervention. They seek the necessary support (supervision, a break, temporarily redirecting their activity) as soon as they identify a risk of professional burnout or an impairment of their judgment.

Title V - Protection of personal data

Article 26 - Principles of collection and minimization

Only data strictly necessary for the support relationship is collected. Sensitive data is only collected where strictly necessary and justified, in particular during positioning interviews or situational assessments, and never systematically.

Article 27 - Security and retention

Any data relating to a person being supported is collected, retained, and destroyed under conditions guaranteeing its confidentiality and security, in accordance with applicable regulations on the protection of personal data. This requirement applies equally to paper records and digital systems (platforms, software, artificial intelligence tools).

Article 28 - Rights of the person being supported

The person being supported is informed of their rights of access, rectification, and deletion regarding data concerning them, as well as how to exercise these rights.

Title VI - Accountability, oversight, and breaches

Article 29 - Accountability

Every practitioner is accountable for their practice before the people they support, before the body that certifies them, and before relevant third parties - in particular, people supported by a supervisee, toward whom a supervisor bears indirect responsibility. They document their activity proportionately - initial agreement, follow-up notes, traceability of supervision and continuing education - so as to be able to account for it.

Article 30 - Ethical doubt

In case of ethical doubt, the practitioner seeks the advice of their supervision or the relevant oversight body before acting, rather than resolving a borderline situation alone. Seeking advice is never an admission of fault and is encouraged as sound practice.

Article 31 - Handling ethical breaches and complaints

An accessible, clearly described complaints procedure is made available for any breach of this Code, structured in stages:

Informal resolution: any observed breach is first the subject of a direct report and an attempt at resolution between the parties, where the situation allows.
Formal report: failing resolution, the situation is brought in writing to the attention of the relevant oversight body.
Investigation and measures: depending on severity, measures range from a recommendation or corrective training (training, mentoring, enhanced supervision) to temporary suspension, up to withdrawal of certification or accreditation in the event of a serious or repeated breach.
Written notification of the decision to the parties concerned.

This procedure is distinct from the mediation applicable to commercial disputes (Article 11): the same disagreement may, where applicable, fall under both paths simultaneously if the contractual dispute also reveals an ethical breach.

Article 32 - Principle of proportionate sanctions

Wherever possible, this procedure favors a restorative and educational aim over a purely punitive one. It never compromises, however, on serious breaches: an intimate or sexual relationship with a person being supported, endangerment of a vulnerable person, unjustified breach of confidentiality, practice outside one's field of competence causing harm, or practice without valid professional insurance (Article 10).

Article 33 - Revision of the Code

This Code is a living document, reviewed periodically in light of developments in practice, regulation, and practitioners' feedback. Any revision is communicated to all certified practitioners and is assigned a new version number.

A framework aligned with the IACTM's

Synodeo is an Accredited Trainer of the International Association of Coaches, Therapists & Mentors (IACTM). On that basis, this Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct joins and upholds the IACTM's ethical framework: our practice sits within the principles shared by the profession, alongside the school's own commitments.

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