About
Yvonne

YVONNE CHOTZEN is an award-winning Hollywood Television Movie Producer and an Attorney. Her movies have been viewed by millions. But it wasn’t always this way…

For years Yvonne could not speak up for herself and struggled with self-expression. A college psychology class led her to explore why she had no memory for a part of her childhood.  A gifted counselor helped her to reclaim remembrance of her 7 year old self – molestation by a trusted family friend who threatened to harm her and her parents if she told.  Yvonne had silenced herself for over a decade. 

By telling her story Yvonne resurrected her voice.  Determined to help others who were inarticulate or felt powerless, she became a Federal Public Defender representing the indigent in hundreds of trials over a decade. Yvonne discovered a simple 3 step storytelling technique by listening and probing for the very essence of authentic emotion in a client’s experience so that she could share their story to the jury.  As a result, she had an unparalleled win rate.

When one of Yvonne’s murder cases turned into an NBC hit movie, Yvonne became a Hollywood Producer overnight.  Using the same simple storytelling strategy she had honed in The Courtroom, Yvonne pitched compelling, powerful true stories that became influential movies including the acclaimed, The Rosa Parks Story, starring Angela Bassett and Cicely Tyson.

Yvonne found balance from the dog-eat-dog careers above with sojourns to silence in a zen temple in Kyoto and an apprenticeship in an Ayurvedic Healing Clinic in a South Indian Ashram.  She brings this unique balance of East and West to her transformational work as Coach, Thought Leader, and foremost, Story Maven.