John Kinyon
John is co-creator/founder of Mediate Your Life international training.
He has devoted his life and career to human connection — to people developing the ability to shift from conflict to understanding, compassion, and collaboration through empathic communication.
John provides mediation and training with individuals and organizations around the world. He is a certified trainer of the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC). His Mediate Your Life approach is based in the work of Nonviolent Communication and integrates a mediation framework, mindfulness, and trauma work. For over 20 years he has mediated conflicts and developed and delivered the NVC/MYL training throughout the U.S. and in countries around the world in Europe, Asia, and Australia. His approach provides conflict “maps” for navigating conflicts and challenges, inner and outer, in all aspects of life.
John's Mediate Your Life work integrates Nonviolent Communication, a mediation framework, mindfulness, and an understanding of trauma healing, particularly from Richard Schwartz's Internal Family Systems and the generational and collective trauma work of Thomas Hübl.
John offers online and in-person trainings, courses, and programs internationally, and facilitates international online forums that focus on healing social-political and personal divides, and building empathic community. He is also an author and speaker.
John’s mentor was Nonviolent Communication founder Marshall Rosenberg, a global peacemaker whose work has deeply touched the lives of hundreds of thousands or more in over 70 countries around the world. John is a leader in the global NVC community and worked closely with Marshall for over a decade. John was a co-founder of the Bay Area NVC organization (BayNVC) and has been a certified trainer of the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) since 2000.
Testimonials
Videos and Interviews with John
John's Story with NVC and Mediate Your Life
John’s roots in this work began with being deeply influenced and inspired by humanistic psychology pioneer Carl Rogers, as well as by Mahatma Gandhi and his work with "nonviolence" in social-political change. In 1998, John met the founder of the international work of Nonviolent Communication, Marshall Rosenberg, and went on to study closely with him for over a decade. In 2002, following a harrowing adventure together working with Afghan tribal elders in a refugee camp on the Pakistan border, John and close colleague Ike Lasater began co-developing a body of work and training program based in NVC that came to be called Mediate Your Life.
Biography
John received his undergraduate degree from the University of San Francisco, where he studied psychology and philosophy (and played for USF’s nationally ranked soccer team). He went on to graduate training in clinical psychology at Penn State University. During his doctoral studies, he worked with individuals and groups in the campus Psychological Clinic and as a researcher at the Stress and Anxiety Disorders Institute. After graduate school, John helped launch and develop a small commercial business before discovering Nonviolent Communication (NVC). John has been studying and practicing mindfulness, meditation, consciousness and spirituality traditions for over 30 years. He lives with his wife and children in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Published Books
- Choosing Peace: New Ways to Communicate to Reduce Stress, Create Connection, and Resolve Conflict
- From Conflict to Connection: Transforming Difficult Conversations into Peaceful Resolutions
- When Your Mind Sabotages Your Dreams: Turning Your Critical Internal Voices Into Collaborative Allies
- Mindfulness in Conversation: Creating the Life and World You Want One Conversation at a Time