Frequently asked questions

An online school, entirely remote, dedicated to the helping professions: tutoring, mentoring, training, coaching, hypnosis, ePNL and supervision. It is operated by TCVH STRATEGIC and offers seven diploma programs across eleven levels, plus four specializations. The name comes from the Greek: syn, together, and hodos, the road.

Yes. Content is available online at your own pace and mentoring takes place by video. No travel is required at any point. Your practice, however, does not happen behind a screen: you conduct real engagements, on your own ground, with real people. That practice is what earns the diploma.

Working professionals who want to structure, name and have recognised a practice of accompanying others - whether they already do it informally or want to make a profession of it. Entry requirements vary: the Tutor program asks for five to seven years of professional experience, the Mentor program ten or more, while the Technician levels in hypnosis and ePNL are open to complete beginners. The four specializations assume you are already a qualified, autonomous practitioner.

No program sets an academic prerequisite. What we look at is your real professional experience, your project and your availability to practise. The positioning assessment establishes that, through an application and an interview.

Each learner is followed by a Synodeo mentor who is a practitioner in their own right. The school was founded by Thibault Velez: over ten years in instructional design, trained in occupational psychology at the CNAM, professional coach, master practitioner in hypnosis and ePNL, integrative psychoanalyst and member of the SFPI and SNPPsy - two codes of conduct he remains bound by, alongside regular supervision.

French, exclusively: content, mentoring, written work and defence. This site exists in English so that we can be understood abroad, but no program is currently delivered in English. An English-language offer is a long-term project, not a near-term promise.

Through the positioning assessment, which is systematic and free. You submit an online application, a mentor reviews it, then invites you to a one-to-one video interview of up to 50 minutes. At the end you receive a training plan matched to your real starting point, and a personalised program proposal. There is no other way in: nobody enrols without being positioned first.

It is free and commits you to nothing. No administration fee, no payment at that stage. You decide after the interview, once you have your program proposal. It is neither an exam nor an admissions interview in disguise: it is a human reading of your background and your project.

The assessment is an in-depth application, for those who want to explore before choosing. Enrolment is a shorter form that assumes you already know which program interests you. Both lead to the same place: a positioning interview with a mentor, then a personalised program proposal.

A mentor replies within 72 hours to arrange the positioning interview, by phone or video as you prefer. What follows depends on your availability and on the documents you send us: the application moves at the pace of the exchange, with no deadline imposed either way.

Four possible outcomes, depending on your situation: a full training plan; a shortened program covering only the blocks you are missing, with your existing skills validated on evidence; a recognition-of-experience route; or, if your project still needs clarifying, a preliminary skills review. The assessment may also conclude that a Synodeo program is not what you need - and say so.

Yes, where the assessment recognises an equivalence. In hypnosis and in ePNL each level is a standalone program with its own diploma: an experienced practitioner trained elsewhere can enter directly at Practitioner or Master Practitioner. The same applies across programs: the Tutor diploma is recommended before Mentor, never required.

Yes. We examine your existing skills block by block, on evidence, during the assessment. A significant part of a program can be validated without being taught again: you keep twelve months of access and the full support package, for a lighter syllabus. The duration and the price do not change - they are public and the same for everyone. Our frameworks, on the other hand, do not move: the competencies required for a diploma are the same for everyone. We tailor the experience, not the standard.

No cohorts, no term dates. Your program begins when your platform access opens, once the statutory ten-day withdrawal period has passed. A single free postponement of the start date is available on written request.

Three figures make up a program, and we always show them separately - all three stated. The training volume is fixed and identical for everyone: it appears on each program's own page, which is the only authoritative source. The one-to-one video coaching volume is equally fixed and attached to the program: four hours for the Coach, Trainer, Supervisor & Training Designer and the Practitioner and Master Practitioner levels, two hours for the Mentor, the specializations and the Technician levels, none for the Tutor. Two learners on the same program have exactly the same included volume. Finally, unlimited e-mail support is included in every program without exception. What the assessment may suggest is an additional coaching package - a choice, never a hidden variable in the price.

Twelve months, for every program, from the day your platform access is opened. That is also the reference period for the payment schedule. At the end of it, your access is renewed automatically and free of charge for twelve months, with no action required and no invoicing: content, e-mail support, marking of your assignments, final review and award of the diploma. Only video sessions are not renewed.

You keep read-only access to your materials for one year, renewable free of charge for a further year on request. Enough to come back to a module months later, when your practice sends you back to it.

Yours. Content is permanently available, with no imposed timetable and no compulsory live sessions. The pacing is set at the assessment, taking your working life into account, so that the program fits inside the twelve months. One warning: the demanding part is not watching content, it is conducting real engagements and writing them up. That takes field time, not screen time.

On app.synodeo.com, our learning platform. Your credentials are personal and must not be shared. Course materials remain the property of the school and are for your personal use only.

It is our pedagogical signature, present in every program. Your mentor goes back over what you have worked on, listens to your doubts and sticking points, supervises your black notebook, marks your assignments and gives you a professional reading of your progress. It is not life coaching, not career coaching and not therapy: it is practitioner-to-practitioner support, entirely aimed at your development.

The volume is known in advance - four hours, two hours, or none depending on the program - and you schedule it freely across the year with your referent. Some prefer four regular check-ins; others save their hours for the difficult moments. It is your call. Between sessions, e-mail support is unlimited, answered within 72 working hours. And if the included volume is not enough, a four-hour package can be added at any point for €300 - €25 more per month.

No. We deliberately replaced group seminars and peer groups with something denser: one-to-one coaching with your mentor and sustained work on your black notebook. It is a choice, not a gap - it avoids the kind of group setting where you attend without ever being seen.

Yes, for most programs - it is the very condition of certification, since the diploma rests on engagements you have genuinely conducted. Depending on the program that means hosting an apprentice, coaching several clients, delivering a training sequence or seeing people in session. This is checked at the assessment: if your setting is not there yet, we discuss it before you commit, not after.

Yes, where the situation is serious and documented: a family event, job loss, a health problem or any comparable setback. The postponement is granted in agreement with the teaching team, on supporting evidence. Sums still due under the contract remain payable, but an access extension may be granted on top of the year of read-only access. Before the start, a single free postponement of the start date is available on written request. In every case, raise it early rather than late.

No written exams, no academic dissertation. Your learning is validated as you go, through work marked by your mentor. Final certification rests on your real practice: the engagements you have conducted, documented and analysed, then defended by video.

Our signature device. Session by session, you record how your real engagements unfold - including the doubts, the risky judgement calls and the feedback that stung or clarified. It is not a showcase document: it is a space for professional truth. A practice only improves from what you have actually been through, never from a story reconstructed afterwards.

The raw notebook never leaves your hands: only the redacted analysis is submitted. Anonymisation is strict and a confidentiality undertaking is signed at the start of the program. Where a piece of work involves a recording, the person's written consent is required and their anonymity is protected throughout.

By video, before a Synodeo mentor. You present an engagement you have genuinely conducted and the analysis you draw from it. It is not a recall test: what is examined is your clear-sightedness about your own practice. The precise format is given to you during the program.

No. The Technician levels, in hypnosis and ePNL, are foundation levels: they are validated through knowledge checkpoints and a reflective piece, supported by a practice journal. No black notebook and no defence at that stage - the black notebook begins at Practitioner. That matches what those levels are for: understanding and handling the tools, before working unsupervised.

There are no marks and no point scales. Each expected competency is assessed qualitatively, and certification requires all of them to be there: an outstanding result on one point does not offset a shortfall elsewhere. We are not after excellence everywhere, we are after soundness.

Nothing final. A shortfall does not mean failure: it opens a targeted revision, supported by your mentor, on that point alone - followed by a new presentation. You have three attempts at validation; beyond that, the issue is no longer the piece of work but your support plan, which we go back over with you. We are not trying to punish a moment; we are trying to establish a competency.

A professional diploma awarded by Synodeo, specific to the program you took. It does not certify attendance or a number of hours: it validates competencies genuinely demonstrated in your black notebook and defended before a mentor. The school puts its name behind what it validates.

No. Coach, mentor, hypnosis practitioner: none of these titles is protected in France, and no state qualification governs their practice. That is precisely what makes the quality of the training decisive - and what explains the number of hasty promises in this sector.

Two distinct guarantees rather than one blurred claim. On one side, the Synodeo diploma, which puts the school's responsibility behind the quality of your training and your assessment. On the other, professional recognition backed by a body outside the school, situating your competencies against shared standards. The school does not award itself its own legitimacy: it connects it to the profession's.

The IACTM (International Association of Coaches, Therapists and Mentors) recognises five of our programs: Coach, Mentor, Supervisor & Training Designer, Hypnosis and ePNL. Two points we would rather state plainly: these are sector recognitions, never state approvals; and an accreditation qualifies a course, it does not amount to individual certification of the learner. The Accreditations & diplomas page details these recognitions. We announce what has been secured.

By choice, and we own it. The official system, RNCP and Qualiopi, rests on a framework defined in advance and checked from the outside. We respect it, we come from it, and we hold the schools within it in high regard. But that framework assumes standardised programs, whereas our craft is to build a different one for each person, from an assessment. Qualiopi certification is what unlocks public funding: giving it up means giving up those funds, and saying so plainly is part of what we owe you. In exchange, we keep full pedagogical freedom, and we anchor the value of our diplomas in professional sector recognitions rather than in a state registration.

No, and it is not an oversight. Synodeo designs its frameworks, runs its assessments and awards its diplomas independently. Our diplomas are not registered with the RNCP or the Répertoire spécifique, and they are not state qualifications. Their value rests on the practice genuinely demonstrated during the program, and on the professional recognitions we obtain, program by program.

It depends on what guarantees its value. The helping professions, coach, mentor, hypnosis practitioner, are unregulated: no state qualification governs their practice. What makes a training worthwhile, then, is the rigour of what it demands. At Synodeo, a diploma rests on real accompaniments documented in the black book and on a defence before a mentor, not on time spent in a seat. To that we add the sector recognitions carried by our certifying partners. We would rather prove than display.

Our programs seek sector recognition from professional bodies. To date, the IACTM (International Association of Coaches, Therapists and Mentors) recognises five of our programs: Coach, Mentor, Supervisor & Training Designer, Hypnosis and ePNL. Two points of vocabulary we insist on: an accreditation qualifies a course, it does not amount to individual certification of the learner; and a sector recognition is never state approval.

Two programs prepare for them alongside the Synodeo diploma: the Trainer program towards the "Formateur professionnel d'adultes" qualification (RNCP 37275), the Tutor program towards the apprenticeship-supervisor certification (RS 5515). Synodeo does not award these: they are prepared and taken separately, with a partner organisation and before its own panel. Arrangements and any funding are clarified at the assessment.

No, neither. Those funding routes require Qualiopi certification, which we do not seek: it would impose procedural constraints that sit at odds with our pedagogical model. It is the accepted trade-off of our independence, and the only thing it asks us to give up. Our programs are paid directly, by the learner in twelve fee-free instalments, or by their employer.

Yes, by direct payment. The relationship is then governed by a training agreement setting out the objective, content, duration, assessment methods and price. Funding routed through an OPCO or a sector scheme, however, is not possible with us: in that case we refer you to a Qualiopi-accredited partner organisation, which takes over the fundable part.

Partly, yes. We examine your existing skills block by block, on evidence, at the assessment, and exempt you from what you already master. This should not be confused with the French state-regulated VAE, which applies to qualifications registered with the RNCP - which ours are not. For the Trainer and Tutor programs, an official VAE remains possible with the partner organisation, under its own rules and timetable.

The recognition our programs carry is that of the partner professional bodies, within their own remit: sector recognition, granted by the profession. There is, however, no academic recognition: a Synodeo diploma carries no ECTS credits, no academic equivalence and no automatic access to a university course. Since the helping professions are unregulated in most countries, nothing prevents you from practising abroad in principle; check the rules of the country you have in mind, and raise it at the assessment if that is your plan.

Prices are public, firm and identical for everyone: each program's price is shown on its own page. These prices include French VAT at 20% and include certification: nothing is added when you take your diploma - no administration fee, no examination fee, no resit fee. An exemption granted at the assessment lightens the syllabus you have to cover: it changes neither the length of your subscription nor its price.

None at all, of any kind: not for early payment, not for a second program, not through referral. The displayed price is what everyone pays. It is a deliberate stance: in a market where fees are almost always negotiated, having no discount is a way of saying the price is fair to begin with. It goes with the free assessment, the absence of administration fees and the full refund on cancellation more than fifteen days ahead.

No. The amount stated in your contract is firm for the whole length of your subscription. The only thing that can be added is an extra coaching package, and only if you ask for it.

In twelve equal consecutive monthly instalments matching the twelve months of access, with no administration fee and no interest - nine to eleven if exemptions were granted at the assessment. This is the only payment method available: paying in full up front is prohibited by article L.6353-6 of the French Labour Code, which protects individuals by requiring that training be paid for as it is delivered. Payment is by SEPA direct debit through our payment provider, which alone holds your bank details. An invoice is issued each month. This instalment plan is not consumer credit: it is payment for a service delivered as it goes.

Yes, within ten days of signing, by any means giving a certain date. That period comes from article L.6353-5 of the French Labour Code, specific to vocational training contracts; it replaces the fourteen-day distance-selling period. No sum may be taken before it expires, and your platform access only opens afterwards.

Cancelling more than fifteen days before the start gives a full refund, with nothing withheld. Less than fifteen days before the start, or after it, sums already paid remain with Synodeo but the remaining balance ceases to be due. If Synodeo cancels, you are refunded in full.

Yes, at any time, by a simple email to contact@synodeo.com. It takes effect within 48 hours and triggers suspension of platform access along with the cancellation policy. Any debit scheduled after we receive your request is cancelled.

The Code of ethics and professional conduct: thirty-three articles in six parts, binding on every Synodeo practitioner, certified or in training, whatever their method or level. It covers consent, confidentiality and its three legal limits, the boundary with clinical care, the duty to hold insurance and supervision, the absolute prohibition on intimate relationships, the use of digital tools and AI, and the procedure where standards are breached. It does not replace the law: where they conflict, the law prevails.

A practitioner makes no clinical diagnosis, treats nothing and prescribes nothing: they position themselves explicitly as a non-clinician. The code grades vigilance by the nature of the practice rather than by job title - work touching deep beliefs calls for the same caution as a hypnosis session. Recognising that limit and referring on to a health professional is among the competencies the programs build and assess.

Yes. Your assessment application, your didactic coaching exchanges and your black notebook are strictly confidential. One point that matters: please do not include health information, medical or psychological, in the forms - it is not needed for the assessment.

In line with the GDPR, and set out in our privacy policy. An application that goes no further is kept for three years, a learner file for the duration of the program plus five years, invoicing data for ten years. No data is sold or used for advertising. This site sets no cookies or trackers; the learning platform uses only a strictly necessary session cookie. You exercise your rights at contact@synodeo.com, with a reply within one month, and may refer a complaint to the French data protection authority.

To Synodeo's disability officer, Thibault Velez, Director of Studies, at contact@synodeo.com. Raise it at the assessment stage: the remote format and the individual mentoring allow real adaptations, and we will look together at what is workable given your situation and the requirements of the framework. That review happens before any commitment, so that the answer is an honest one - including when an adaptation is not possible.

By email to contact@synodeo.com, which remains the first point of contact. Failing an amicable resolution, free recourse to a consumer mediator is available under article L.616-1 of the French Consumer Code; Synodeo's mediator is being appointed and the details will be published in our terms of sale.

Synodeo is a training brand operated by TCVH STRATEGIC, a French SAS registered with the Paris Trade and Companies Register under number 909 731 226, with its registered office at 61 rue de Lyon, 75012 Paris; the programs are legally designed and delivered by TCVH STRATEGIC. Its training-provider registration with the DREETS is being processed; no number is disclosed until registration has been granted, and such a registration, once issued, does not amount to state approval. Full details are in our legal notice.

Write to contact@synodeo.com or use the Contact page: a reply within 48 working hours, by email or phone as you prefer. No question is too basic, and you do not need to have done the assessment to get in touch.