Loren A. Olson M.D.
Loren A. Olson, MD, is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist and an award-winning author.
Dr. Olson's most recent book, No More Neckties: A Memoir in Essays, won the IPPY Silver Award for Best LGBT Non-Fiction (2022). It was also a finalist for Indie Book of the Year in the same category (2022). Finally Out: Letting Go of Living Straight won the Ben Franklin Gold Award for Best LGBT Non-Fiction (2018).
Readers of his posts on Psychology Today have viewed his essays over 1.6 million times.
Dr. Olson focused his psychiatric career on those suffering with the most challenging mental illnesses. He received the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He is also a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Olson has presented at the World Congress of Psychiatry in Prague; Gay Fathers Worldwide in Sydney, Australia; and throughout the United States and Canada. He has been featured on national television, radio, podcasts, and television.
Dr. Olson was born in Nebraska, and as former Nebraska senator Bob Kerry said, “Do you think anyone in his right mind would choose to be gay in Nebraska?” He left to become a Flight Surgeon in the U.S. Navy.
After 18 years of marriage to his wife, Lynn, he came out as gay, although he prefers to think of it as finally letting people in.
Dr. Olson has been with his husband, Doug, for 38 years. Their grandchildren think of Doug as a bonus grandpa. Lynn and Doug often cook holiday dinners for their modern family.
Until their recent retirement to Des Moines, Iowa, Dr. Olson and Doug lived on a farm near the Bridges of Madison County where they raised grass-fed, Belted Galloway cattle. For two years, they lived in the barn during the renovation of their circa 1900 farmhouse.
Dr. Olson blogs regularly for Psychology Today as well as on his website, NoMoreNecktiesBook.com. Sign up on his website and receive his tip sheet, "Male Sexuality across the Lifespan."