About
Kitsy Schoen is a licensed clinical social worker and Vipassana practitioner with over 30 years of meditation experience. She is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock and served in the Leadership Sangha at East Bay Meditation Center for 6.5 years. She has facilitated groups, classes, and workshops since 1982. Her teaching focuses on the intersection of mindfulness practice and multicultural awareness.
Teaching focus
Kitsy Schoen's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. Several threads come up: steady attention to body and breath; the relationship between ethics and meditation; and short, direct teachings rather than long talks. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Kitsy Schoen 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 LGBTQ+. The bigger move Kitsy Schoen 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. Kitsy Schoen'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. Kitsy Schoen'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
Kitsy Schoen teaches in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Kitsy Schoen, LCSW, has been practicing Vipassana meditation for over 30 years. She is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock and was a member of EBMC's Leadership Sangha for 6.5 years. Kitsy has facilitated groups, classes and workshops since 1982. Inspired in large part by Reverend Ryumon Hilda Gutiérrez Baldoquín, Kitsy is committed to exploring the intersection of mindfulness and multicultural awareness. In the Insight stream Kitsy Schoen 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. Kitsy Schoen'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. Kitsy Schoen'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. Kitsy Schoen'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. Kitsy Schoen'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. Kitsy Schoen'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. Kitsy Schoen'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. Kitsy Schoen'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. Kitsy Schoen'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
Kitsy Schoen teaches as a lay teacher in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. 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 Kitsy Schoen, 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.
