Psychology of Altered and Transformational States of Consciousness
Dr Alexander De Foe PhD MCouns
Researcher, counsellor, and educator exploring how altered states shape meaning, health and human development across the lifespan.
How do altered states intersect with human development across the lifespan?
Dr Alexander De Foe is a Melbourne-based researcher, educator, and author specialising in altered states of consciousness, embodied cognition, and transpersonal psychology. With over 30 published refereed research papers and extensive background in tertiary education, Alex works at the intersection of applied neuroscience and human flourishing.
About
Alex De Foe
Dr Alexander De Foe is a Melbourne-based researcher, educator, and author whose work sits where consciousness science meets lived human experience. He is a Lecturer in Counselling at Monash University, where he teaches into the Master of Counselling and supervises PhD, masters, and honours students.
His PhD in Psychology — awarded at Monash University in 2016 — examined embodied cognition and the principles of human perception. Since then, his research has widened to altered and transformational states, including ASMR, psychedelic and meditative states, and psycho-spiritual development, studied across cultural and developmental contexts. He has published 30+ refereed papers and holds a Master of Counselling, which keeps his research anchored in practice.
Alex also serves as Chair and a Board Director of the Australian Centre for Consciousness Studies (ACCS), advising on counselling approaches where altered states and mental health overlap.
Selected research
Modernising Jung
Exploring archetypal imagery in situated cognition: in collaboration with the University of Queensland and Australian National University colleagues.
Psychedelics and Phenomenology
What are the stages of the psychedelic trip in recreational environments, and how can they be contextualised?
Active Inference and Mental Health
Applying Karl Friston’s entropy model to uncertainty response in anxiety disorders.
Upcoming book: Transformative consciousness experiences and selfhood (TBA 2028)
CV
- 10+ yrs of experience as an academic in Melbourne, Australia (plus 4yrs of experience as PhD candidate)
- Lecturer at Monash University (present) and Lecturer at RMIT University (past)
- PhD degree in experimental psychology and Master's of Counselling degree (Monash)
- Have been involved in experimental psychology grants valued >1mil
- Have supervised over 30 students to completion across honours, masters, and PhD degrees
- Developed several postgraduate coursework units in psychotherapy, counselling, and psychology; coordinated several undergraduate and postgraduate units; taught into over a dozen units across disciplines
- Community and counselling expertise in male family violence, narrative therapy, and community health
- Chair at the Australian Centre for Consciousness Studies
- Served as Guest Editor for Scientific Reports, Nature Portfolio
- h-index of 10 and work cited over 1,000 times
Services
Supervision and teaching
Alex has supervised PhD, masters, and honours projects on expanded states of consciousness, meaning-making, and existential factors in human development.
Neurodiversity and sensory experience
Our team presently aims to understand sensory experience in neurodivergent populations across psychedelic use, ASMR use, and other unique consciousness states.
This work is conducted via the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) Research Network, predominantly in conjunction with Federation University, Monash University, and RMIT University.
It is also developed in collaboration with 4th year, masters, and PhD students with an interest in this range of topics.
Current active studies you can take part in: Global ASMR survey (via FedUni)
