John Kinyon is one of our trainers of Nonviolent Communication and someone in whom I have a great deal of trust and confidence. John, in my experience has a special gift for facilitating empathic understanding and communication between people. I highly endorse John's skills and abilities with Nonviolent Communication, and I strongly recommend him to anyone needing help resolving a conflict situation.

— Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D. Founder of Nonviolent Communication

Personally, I wouldn’t be who I am without John’s work. As I travel a road of healing the trauma of my life, his techniques and mediation skills helped me to understand ways to self-connect with more kindness and compassionate awareness.

— Hope Obrien

I highly recommend John Kinyon. In my session with him I had a wonderful healing and gained great relief. John gave me unconditional kindness and empathy. I gained compassion for my former spouse and the pain she suffered since childhood. I also gained compassion for myself, and I was able to become aware of my triggers and my part in the problems in our relationship. After the session, I felt like there had been chains holding me down, and now they were cut and I was free. That shift inside me led me to email my former spouse. She responded to me and we connected for the first time in 45 years! We had some resolution of our issues around our divorce many years ago. That resolution has affected our children and has brought relief and peace to the whole family.

— Charles P

John introduced the 3-chairs concept for difficult conversations to our team for 3 hours during a 2-day offsite. The general consensus of the team was that John had established a process and a mindset that enabled the team to experience a breakthrough. One of my peers said the workshop had been perfect and that we as a team had never made so much progress during this type of meeting before. We ended the offsite feeling that everything we had wanted to accomplish was accomplished. One of the things I enjoyed most was my manager's summation of his experience with John: 'The guy is incredibly centered! When he first started talking my reaction was, What the hell is he talking about? And then an hour later I was like, Oh my god, he has changed my life!'

— Paul Johnson, Microsoft Senior Marketing Excellence Manager

Working with John on improving our team’s approach to conflict is one of the best decisions I’ve made as a leader since founding the company five years ago. John’s method gave us a simple, shared vocabulary and a process we could trust, even when we’ve been scared to dive into difficult conversations. I can see the difference in how we relate to each other and how we perform more effectively. Now that we have a way to clear those issues before they deepen and calcify, we are much more productive. I feel confident in saying that if Flip Labs fulfills its vision to grow and make real change in the world by solving social and environmental problems, our work with John will be a key reason we were able to do so.

— Cheryl Dahle, Founder of Flip Labs

The 18-week Mediate Your Life course has come to an end, and my heart is full of insights and gratitude.

When I attended the IIT last year, I deeply admired the empathy skills of the NVC trainers. Watching them heal speakers through empathic dialogue felt almost magical and incredible—I silently wished that one day I could be like them. But was that just an unattainable dream?

To my surprise, it was as if Teacher Lisa heard my wish and organized this course. Through John’s Three Chairs model, we were given a clear structure to navigate our inner chaos and outer conflicts—whether with ourselves or others. I love the clarity of this framework; it’s like a map that guides me through self-connection, self-empathy, and empathy for others. It gives me a concrete path to follow as a helper and mediator, helping me move forward with confidence on the path to becoming a trainer.

Beyond the structure, I really appreciate how John continuously demonstrated everything he taught. His focus, presence, and attunement came so naturally and effortlessly. Gradually, through repeated exposure, I found myself becoming more present and attuned—feeling others’ emotions and experiencing true connection.

I also really enjoy the MYL App meditations for self-connection that John shared. As a Buddhist, I believe in the Buddha nature in all beings, in equality among all life, and that the “self” is made up of “non-self” elements. Yet, in the real world, I still sometimes cling to the idea of "me." John's guided meditations often remind us to expand the self, to open into the vast universe, to feel the oneness between ourselves and others. This helped me realize that we are like different waves—each with our own rhythm, yet all made of the same water.

I appreciate the pacing of John’s teaching, the powerful demonstrations with participants, and the way we applied what we learned immediately in small group practices. I also enjoyed hearing John’s sincere responses to students’ questions.

Another highlight was the translation setup in this course. Two interpreters worked together to make the class flow smoothly. One provided real-time translation into John’s personal earpiece, allowing him to respond to our Chinese questions almost instantly. The other translated John’s English back into Chinese for us. It was an excellent online translation system that created an accessible learning environment—especially for someone like me whose English listening skills aren’t strong.

Because I loved this course so much, I committed fully to the practices. I built deep connections, and saw my own growth through the practice.

Right now, my heart is full of joy. This course fulfilled my needs for learning, growth, clarity, appreciation, gratitude, friendship, and connection. I wanted to write it all down and celebrate it.

Thank you so much, John.