About Dr. Linda Olson

Dr. Linda Olson is a clinical psychologist specializing in coercive control recovery and creator of the Dangerous Hope™ framework.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Olson has helped women recover from trauma, self-doubt, relational harm, and coercive control.

A framework explaining why people often see warning signs long before they emotionally believe the danger.

*This process became the foundation of Dr. Olson’s Breaking Free Method*

I spent much of my life trying to understand why intelligent, capable people stay in relationships and situations that hurt them.
What I eventually discovered is that the problem is often not a lack of intelligence. It is a gradual loss of self-trust.
Growing up, there was often little room for my thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Later, I found myself in a relationship where there was even less.
Like many women, I saw warning signs long before I emotionally believed what they meant.
My younger sister Ann was murdered by an abusive partner. My younger sister Mary died homeless. Those losses deepened my commitment to understanding why people stay, why they struggle to leave, and what helps them heal.
Over more than 30 years as a psychologist, I have learned that healing begins when we stop dismissing important information and start taking our thoughts, feelings, needs, perceptions, and experiences seriously.
This realization led me to develop the YES AND Practice™, a simple skill that helps people hold two truths at the same time so they can make better decisions and rebuild self-trust.
Today, my mission is simple: to help women understand coercive control, rebuild self-trust, and learn the YES AND Practice™ sooner than I learned it myself.
I paid a high price for the lessons I’ve learned, and I want those lessons to help other women trust themselves sooner.