Stacey Simmons

Corine Sombrun was the first subject to submit to EEG's for measuring her brain activity during the practice of Auto-Induced Cognitive Trance (AICT), or in French, Transe Cognitive Auto-Induite (TCAI). This practice uses a sound designed by Sombrun to help teach practitioners how to use trance as a personal or clinical non-ordinary state of consciousness. The research pool has since grown from a single subject to over 4000 people in French-speaking countries who use AICT/TCAI on a regular basis. Research has been undertaken at the University of Lyon and at the Center for Gigaconsciousness in Belgium with Stephen Laureys and Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse examining the brains of subjects trained in AICT/TCAI. In 2022, The Trance Science Research Foundation, and its sister organization Trancelab, began teaching clinicians to use AICT/TCAI as a therapeutic modality. The first cohort of these practitioners is now reporting on their clinical cases. From depression, to sleep disorders, to non-epileptic psychogenic seizures, AICT/TCAI is showing promising results. In addition, we have begun using AICT/TCAI in conjunction with psychedelic therapies in the U.S. and in Geneva, Switzerland (where almost all the traditional psychedelics can be prescribed). Patients report that using TCAI helps them to feel that they have greater control of their experience. In this paper, Dr. Valérie Picard and Dr. Stacey Simmons will discuss the use of AICT/TCAI in clinical practice, and report on the first results of using TCAI in conjunction with traditional psychedelic therapy in Switzerland.

Stacey Simmons, MA, PhD, LMFT is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Psychedelic Therapist. She is a clinical supervisor at Hope Therapy Center in Burbank, California. Her practice focuses on psychedelic psychotherapy, creative professionals, as well as neuroscience and consciousness research. She is a volunteer researcher with the Semel Institute of Neuroscience at UCLA, as well as a researcher with the Trance Science Research Institute in Paris, France. She is the first American clinician to be a certified practitioner in Auto-Induced Cognitive Trance (Transe Cognitive Auto-Induite) via the Trancelab Training Institute in Paris, France. She holds a PhD from the University of New Orleans, and a Masters degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.