The Art of Becoming-
This is a space dedicated to transformation, truth-telling, and the sacred disruption of what no longer serves.
I’m Alexandra Winteraven (they/them), steward of Embodied Rebellion, and a discerning companion through the in-between spaces where the most profound alchemy can unfold.
My work is rooted in over 25 years of studying Eastern & Western psychology, spirituality, and a lifelong journey through the art of un/becoming.
my training and lineages
My path has always been one of seeking and weaving, gathering wisdom from diverse fields and grounding it through the body:
Psychotherapist
I hold a Master of Arts in Clinical Counseling with an emphasis in Couples and Family Therapy (University of Northern Colorado, 2015), and I’m a licensed psychotherapist in Oregon, though the work I offer through Embodied Rebellion is not therapy.
My training in systems theory informs how I see and work with patterns. I track how dynamics organize across relationships and contexts, and how reorganization can occur when those patterns are brought into clear, relational contact.
Roots in Earth Wisdom
My academic journey began with a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture and a Certificate in Horticultural Therapy (Colorado State University, 2010). This grounding in earth wisdom fostered a deep relationship with the natural world, one that continues to serve as both teacher and guide in my work.
Embodied Pathways
For over a decade, somatic inquiry has been central to how I work. Rather than applying techniques, I track sensation, pattern, timing, and relational response as they emerge in real time. My approach is body-based, trauma-aware, and shaped through practice, deep listening, and ongoing refinement in relationship.
Guided by Symbols and Archetypes
I work with archetypal patterns and symbolic systems, like Tarot and astrology, as portals into the deeper layers of the Self. These tools don’t offer fixed answers, but reveal hidden truths and pathways for transformation.
What Has Shaped This Work
This work has been shaped through long engagement with multiple fields and sustained practice over time. Influences include depth psychology, trauma studies, feminist and cultural theory, and somatic traditions, integrated through lived experience rather than held as ideology.
My ancestral roots trace back to the Baltics of Lithuania, where traditional folk practices persisted quietly alongside imposed cultural narratives. Many families lived one story in public and another in private, holding practices like divination, ritual, and herbal knowledge in domestic, relational forms that could survive without being named.
This lineage shaped my way of sensing and relating to the world. Rather than being taught explicitly, it was transmitted through attention, pattern recognition, and an intimacy with cycles, symbols, and the unseen. I later chose the word witch as a way to name this orientation as a commitment to perception, responsibility, and practice.
I carry this lineage consciously and selectively, honoring what endured while refusing what no longer fits. It informs how I listen, how I track pattern, and how I work with complexity, both visible and invisible, without romanticizing the past or turning it into doctrine.
the witch in my blood
archetypes & astrology
Scorpio Stellium, 10th House—Sun, Venus, Uranus
My work is oriented toward depth, visibility, and structural change. I’m attuned to what operates beneath the surface of roles, identities, and systems, especially where power, avoidance, or unspoken dynamics shape behavior. I stay with what others bypass and support reorganization that affects how people show up publicly and relationally, not just internally.
Moon in Pisces, 2nd house
Attention is given how to navigate the terrain of safety, value, and self-trust. This includes tracking how emotional needs, resources, and sense of worth are held somatically, and how they quietly shape decisions, boundaries, and capacity for care.
Aquarius Rising
Disruption of collective and inherited patterns that shape belonging, rebellion, and conformity.
Virgo Stellium, 8th House—Saturn, Jupiter, North Node
Precision and discernment are brought to complex material, particularly around intimacy, descent, and transformation. I’m skilled at tracking subtle patterns, working carefully with what is sensitive, hidden, or taboo, and supporting change that is both deep and usable in daily life.
Astrology isn’t just something I study, it’s a living map of how I move, guide, and make meaning:
the heart of this work
Change in this work happens through contact rather than concept. It asks for a desire for the capacity to stay with discomfort, uncertainty, and moments of disorganization long enough for something different to take shape.
This process is relational and embodied, unfolding through real-time contact rather than explanation or preemptive resolution. As internal patterns shift, relationships and ways of moving through the world reorganize alongside them.
My role is to stay present and engaged as this unfolds, tracking what is emerging, what is resisting, and what is ready to change. The work is held with care, honesty, and attention to pacing, allowing reorganization to occur without force or performance.
connection to place
I live, love, and work on the traditional homelands of the Clackamas, Cowlitz, Multnomah, Kathlamet, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, and bands of the Chinook tribe, now known as Portland, Oregon.
This generative land grounds me in my practice and reminds me of the responsibility we carry to honor those who came before us.
a lifelong commitment to unlearning
I am a lifelong student of unlearning white supremacy and settler-colonial ways of thinking and relating. This dedication is woven into my work and life, as I continually strive to hold space for liberation and collective healing.
naming is the first act of meaning
In-Between Magic (Threshold Work)
Winter names a threshold, a season where change happens quietly and beneath the surface. Raven speaks to pattern, transition, and the capacity to move between states without forcing resolution.
This name reflects how I inhabit the world: queering form, identity, and expectation rather than settling into fixed categories. My work is shaped by living at those edges, where binaries soften and something more honest can take shape through attention and relationship.