John Kinyon is a leading trainer of the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) and its global network, and is a co-founder of the Bay Area NVC organization. John works with individuals, groups, and organizations and has offered mediation and communication skills training to thousands of people around the world, including providing conflict resolution training to Afghan tribal elders along the Pakistani border in 2002. John has worked closely with NVC founder Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D. since 2000, and is regularly invited by Dr. Rosenberg to be a staff trainer with him at 9-day NVC international intensive trainings (IITs). John has a background in clinical psychology and has started three businesses. He also incorporates a long study of spiritual practice and principles of nonviolence into his work, including study and practice of the work of Carl Rogers, Gandhi, Eckhart Tolle, Ken Wilber, David Whyte, Byron Katie, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, and Parmahansa Yogananda of Self-Realization Fellowship.

John received his B.A. from the University of San Francisco, where he majored in studies of psychology and philosophy and played for their nationally ranked soccer team. He went on to receive an M.S. degree in clinical psychology from Penn State University, spending 5 years of doctoral training working as a psychotherapist with individuals and groups and as a research assistant at the Penn State Stress and Anxiety Disorders Institute. He then started and developed a small business in the gourmet food industry before becoming a full time communication trainer and starting two NVC businesses. John lives with his wife and three children in the San Francisco Bay Area.