Mary Hayes Grieco

Mary Hayes Grieco is a respected spiritual teacher based in the Minneapolis, Minnesota. An original and expansive thinker, a pragmatic emotional healer, and an uplifting public speaker, Mary has inspired thousands of people since she first began teaching spirituality classes in 1982. Currently she is the director and lead trainer of The Midwest Institute for Forgiveness Training, and the author of Unconditional Forgiveness A Simple and Proven Method to Forgive Everyone and Everything,published by Simon & Schuster.

Mary has worked on the faculty of Hazelden Renewal Center for sixteen years from 1996-2008 as a spiritual retreat leader for people in recovery from addiction who are seeking spiritual growth and healing. From 1996 - 2003 she taught courses in the spirituality of the work place at The Management Center at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. She has been the featured keynote speaker at a number of conferences, serving organizations that are fostering a spirit of wellness and positive community in their company culture.

The Midwest Institute for Forgiveness Training provides programs for professionals, for the general public, and for committed students of self-mastery. These programs are based in the model and methods of Unconditional Love and Forgiveness, the life work of Mary’s mentor, Dr. Edith Stauffer PhD. Mary met Edith in 1986, and entered intensive training as a student and teacher of this powerful healing work, and it became Mary’s life work as well. She has taught forgiveness workshops since 1990 in a wide variety of venues --- churches, hospitals, businesses, treatment centers, and professional conferences --- locally, nationally, and internationally. Mary has taught Forgiveness in both the Republic of Ireland and in the North of Ireland, and she was a featured speaker at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in 2005. She has trained a network of therapists who work with military families - The European Branch of the American Counseling Association - in applications of her forgiveness model to the lives of returning veterans and their families, and she has also been invited to teach her work to a Muslim audience in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Mary intends to make the methods of forgiveness widely available to anyone who wants the peace and relief that comes with forgiveness.

Mary was the creator and host of her own local radio show in the Twin Cities, The Blue Couch, from 1986-1994, featuring interviews with local and national leaders in spiritual thought and wholistic health, and her own unique style of philosophical discourse. She was a columnist for The Phoenix Health and Recovery Journal, where her writing was discovered by an editor for Hazelden Educational Materials. Hazelden published her first book, The Kitchen Mystic Spiritual Lessons Hidden in Everyday Life in 1992, as well as a desk calendar based on the book in 1995. The Kitchen Mystic and subsequent works (The Peaceful Heart, Living Your Purpose, and A Woman’s Ways) were published as audio books by Hi Bridge Audio in 1996. Be A Light: Illumined Essays for Times Like These, was published by Waterwheel Publishing in the fall of 2008.

Mary thinks of herself as a philosopher and healer, and a lover of God in ordinary things. She is dedicated to liberating the joy of the human spirit and participating fully in what she perceives to be the birth of a new humanity. In her personal life, Mary is committed to a yoga meditation path, and to spending time with friends and her family — her husband Fred, daughters Tara (27) and Vivi (15) and twin granddaughters, Mia and River (7.) She lives in Minneapolis, and also enjoys spending quiet time with the wildlife on her 40 acres of woods in Wisconsin . A second-generation Irish American, Mary has an abiding love for all things Irish, especially traditional storytelling and poetry. She has visited Ireland many times because it renews her soul.

Mary encourages us to do our part for our world by healing our wounds with forgiveness, and illuminating our consciousness with steady spiritual habits. She hopes that you too will 'be a light' and live purposefully in service to others in these transformational times.  

"I want you to give yourself wholeheartedly to the evolution of human consciousness too. Starting in your own life, today, make an athletic leap to the higher ground that is calling you. Come forward! Break out of your fears and surrender to the flow of your unique and lovely life. Agree to shine in service to truth and love in your daily interactions. Become committed."