Mary L. Hoefler is a Chicago-based psychotherapist, writer, and comedic storyteller who found her way to storytelling later in life. She first stepped onto The Moth stage in July 2023, at age 60, after finding herself onstage not once, but twice, during expanded states of consciousness. What began as an experiment became something she didn’t see coming: multiple StorySlam wins and Grand Slam victories, and a growing body of stories about the strange, uncomfortable, and frequently funny business of being human.

A mother of two and lifelong dog person, Mary has spent decades helping other people explore their lives before realizing she had plenty of her own material. Her stories draw from growing up as the daughter of European immigrants who embraced silence as a life skill, two marriages, two divorces, motherhood, therapy-giving and receiving-and a lifelong tendency to insist everything was fine long after the evidence suggested otherwise.

Mary is still finding her way as a storyteller, which is very much the point. Her work is drawn from lived experience rather than expertise and from an interest in the gap between what people say out loud and what they keep to themselves. She is less interested in tidy resolutions than in recognition: the moment when humor makes something bearable, and telling the truth makes it usable.

Mary lives and works in Chicago, oversharing with strangers and paying attention.

For psychotherapy services, visit MLH Psychotherapy.