---
title: "River Dunavin - Center for Nonviolent Communication"
description: "River Dunavin"
url: "https://www.cnvc.org/trainers/river-dunavin"
date: "2026-09-18T06:25:43+00:00"
language: "en-US"
---
# River Dunavin
# Certified Trainer since 2016
We all can thrive and do no harm
Speaks English
Current Country: United States
Country of Origin: United States
Assessor - **Accepting new candidates**
I began learning and practicing Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in 2002. I first encountered Marshall Rosenberg in 2004 by participating in a weekend training with him in Albuquerque, NM. My worldview was forever changed by hearing him say, *With these ‘Giraffe ears’ I can never hear what a person thinks, I only sense the need alive in their heart.* I began sharing NVC in 2006 after experiencing an International Intensive Training (IIT) with Marshall and others. My hunger to embody nonviolence was fed by multiple remarkable NVC trainers including Jorge Rubio-Vollert, Jim and Jori Manske, Robert Gonzales, Mary Mackenzie, John Kinyon, Dominic Barter, Miki Kashtan, Christa Morf, Newt Bailey, Thom Bond, Sylvia Haskvitz, Stephanie Bachmann Mattei, Alan Seid (Rafa), Sarah Peyton and others. I was recognized as a CNVC Certified Trainer in 2016 and an Assessor in 2025. I reside in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and i recall with reverence that the land were i live and work was home to the Lenni-Lenape nation long before settlers arrived.
The arc of my spiritual understanding began by being born in 1954 USA as the youngest of five siblings within a complex and loving middle-class Catholic family from a "blue-collar" Illinois town. Now i am of the faith and feeling that love is the very nature of our being and that we share our being with everyone and everything. Driven by a desire to discover and experience truth directly, i’ve studied with (and may carry some fragrance of) The Bible, The Book of Tao, Leo Buscaglia, Ken Keyes, Jr., Ram Dass, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho), Stanislav Grof, Jacquelyn Small, Byron Katie, Arnold Mindell, Marshall Rosenberg, Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma), Rupert Spira, Roshi Joan Halifax, and Richard Lang.
Acting as a trainer my offerings and NVC experiences include supporting incarcerated men and women, university faculty and staff, medical students, hospital workers, NGO staff, small business, civil court mediation, community mediation, restorative circles, sociocratic governance implementation, community learners and practice groups. I envision that we all can thrive and do no harm. To support that vision, i sense my mission is to say yes to what is given and to help make what is given more wonderful.
### Related
- [ **A world of connection** (Trainer Event 01-22-2027) ](https://www.cnvc.org/learn/events/a-world-of-connection-2027-01-22-10-00-00)
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### TRAINING FOCUS:
- General
[ Trainer's Website ](http://www.heart2heartinc.org)
[ LINKEDIN PROFILE ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/river-dunavin-ba203689/)
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