BOOK LOREN OLSON, M.D.
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Loren Olson, M.D.—Psychiatrist, LGBT issues
Specialties: LGBT issues, adult psychiatry
Home base: Des Moines, Iowa
Web site: www.finallyoutbook.com
Author of Finally Out: Letting Go of Living Straight, Loren A. Olson, M.D., DLFAPA, is a board-certified psychiatrist who has been engaged in the clinical practice of psychiatry for over 35 years. He has been recognized for his achievements by his peers as a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and by patients and their families as a recipient of the “Exemplary Psychiatrist Award” from the National Alliance on Mental Illness..
While serving as Medical Director of Psychiatry, Dr. Olson was responsible for developing and improving the psychiatric treatment programs at two of the largest hospitals in Iowa: Mercy Hospital Medical Center and Methodist Hospital/Iowa Health System. Dr. Olson has been active in teaching psychiatry to residents in psychiatry and to medical and allied health students. He has also been an advocate for the needs of the mentally ill on a national, state and local level and he has held several offices in the Iowa Psychiatric Society, including president.
Dr. Olson has conducted independent research on mature gay men, and he presented the initial results of this research at the World Congress in Psychiatry in Prague in September 2008 and throughout the United States. A frequent resource for local print, radio and television journalists on topics related to mental health, Dr. Olson was recently featured nationally on ABC-TV's Good Morning America. He writes for his own blog, MagneticFire.com, which has a strong following among mature gay men, and he is a regular featured blogger for HuffingtonPost.com and PsychologyToday.com.
Dr. Olson and his life partner of over 20 years, Doug Mortimer, were legally
married in Iowa in September 2009, six months after same-sex marriage
was legalized in that state. He was previously married and is the
proud father of two daughters and six grandchildren. He and Doug live on
a farm south of Des Moines, where they raise Belted Galloway Cattle.
Dr. Olson has been an active member and leader in Plymouth Church,
United Church of Christ, in Des Moines. 
His experience as a gay man and a
Christian was featured at the National Conference of the United Church of
Christ. He served for four years as a Flight Surgeon in the United States
Navy.
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