About
Andrés González is a dharma teacher and psychotherapist based in Bakersfield, California, on Yokuts land. He trained at East Bay Meditation Center's two-year Spiritual Teacher & Leadership Training program. González also holds a master's degree in social work and has completed certification in psychedelic facilitation through the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. His background includes training in harm reduction, healing justice, and Indigenous psychology. González practices curanderismo and brings experience as a transracial adoptee and two-spirit Mestizo with Yaqui, Mexican, Spanish, and Scottish ancestry to his work.
Teaching focus
Andrés González's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Insight tradition. Several threads come up: dharma applied to social and collective suffering; dharma in dialogue with race, identity, and power;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Andrés González works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include trauma, LGBTQ+. The bigger move Andrés González keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Andrés González's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Andrés González's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Andrés González teaches in the Insight tradition. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Andrés González relates to himself firstly as a spiritual being embodying, Earth-side, the multiplicity of gender, sexuality, race, & culture as a two-spirit Mestizo with primarily Yaqui, Mexican, Spanish, & Scottish ancestries. He's also a transracial adoptee, connected to a lineage of Indigenous adoptees separated from family, land, & culture by way of the U.S. child welfare system. Andrés' lived experience integrating these many worlds has informed his path as a practitioner of curanderismo, dharma teacher, and community mental health clinician. Trained in harm reduction, healing-justice, & Indigenous psychology as a psychotherapist, he holds a masters degree in social work. He is also a graduate of East Bay Meditation Center's two-year Spiritual Teacher & Leadership Training and the 2023-2024 Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics' certification program in psychedelic facilitation. Andrés presently resides on the land of the Yokuts people (aka Bakersfield, CA) and lovingly traverses the ceremony of life with his adored service dog, Jr. To support Andrés' teachings:Venmo @andres-roy-leonpaypal.me/andresroyleon In the Insight stream Andrés González works inside, the emphasis is on direct attention to body, feeling tone, and mind, alongside the brahmaviharas and an ongoing investigation of how clinging and aversion arise. Talks tend to be conversational rather than scripted, and there's room for sila and ethics to be talked about as part of practice rather than as a separate topic. Andrés González's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Andrés González's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Andrés González's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Andrés González's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Andrés González's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Andrés González teaches as a lay teacher in the Insight tradition. The institutional home, per the source listing, is East Bay Meditation Center, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Insight lineage in the West runs through teachers like Mahasi Sayadaw, U Ba Khin, Anagarika Munindra, and Dipa Ma into the founders of IMS, Spirit Rock, and the regional centers, and most contemporary Insight teachers position themselves somewhere in that broad family.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Andrés González, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. The container is shaped by East Bay Meditation Center, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
