My Biography

The surfing dreams ended when he was accepted to Alliant University as one of their youngest graduate students at age 20.  He completed this rigorous Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology and earned his Doctorate degree in clinical psychology at the age of 25.  Following his graduation, Dr. Lyons was accepted into the U.S. Navy and commissioned as a full lieutenant in the Medical Service Corp (MSC) in 1983. He completed his post- doctoral internship at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

While training at Bethesda, Dr. Lyons had the opportunity of working closely with a wide range of physicians and surgeons.   In one of his clinical rotations, Dr. Lyons conducted numerous pre-surgical psychological evaluations and conducted a high volume of neuropsychological assessments with closed head injury servicemen. Over the next two years, Dr. Lyons was stationed at the Naval Recruiting Station in San Diego, California where he evaluated enlisted personnel for specialized service positions.  He was honorably discharged in 1986 and pursued a private practice dedicated to forensics and medical-legal evaluations.  Over the next twelve years, Dr. Lyons provided psychological treatment services to injured workers and chronic pain patients.

In 2003, Dr. Lyons was selected to be one of two psychologists to work with the Las Vegas Metro Police and S.W.A.T. team where he consulted with hostage negotiators during high intensity and public crisis situations. While serving in this capacity, Dr. Lyons’ psychological practice maintained its emphasis on psychological evaluations, as he was doing pre-employment testing for police officer and fire department candidates. During this same time period, Dr. Lyons served as a consultant to both the Venetian Hotel where he provided psychological services to their security apparatus and at the MGM Grand where he served as a psychological consultant to their Human Resources Department.

Dr. Lyons understands chronic pain because of his own personal experience with it.

He had a total left hip replacement in September 2019 to treat his chronic osteoarthritis caused by his jujitsu practice. He began refusing pain medication while in the hospital and was able to return to work seeing patients within 72 hours of the surgical procedure. He has also experienced chronic lumbar spine pain due to three herniated discs in his back, with L4 L5 measuring 4.5 mm.

Finally, he has chronic arthritis in his right shoulder, as evidenced by his most recent MRI. The Arthritis has been classified as severe, causing significant nerve pain at times.

By utilizing the therapeutic modalities at cycle Gen X, Dr. Lyons is another Mr. day of work associated with any of these chronic pain conditions and is an advocate for physical conditioning as a means of handling painful second signals that emanate from the body.

As a result, Dr. Lyons has a thorough understanding of his patient’s chronic pain and can serve as a motivator for them in terms of rehabilitation and recovery.

Dr. Lyons demonstrating meditation in the freezing cold.

Since 2008, Dr. Lyons has specialized in the evaluation and treatment of chronic pain patients. He conducts pre-surgical psychological clearances for patients considering advanced pain interventional procedures such as spinal cord stimulator implantation. He provides comprehensive neuro-cognitive evaluations on injured workers to determine appropriate disability impairment ratings. Dr. Lyons utilizes various treatment modalities including cognitive-behavioral therapy, biofeedback, bioenergetics, and family counseling in assisting patients to achieve improved functionality. He also works with traumatized patients using EMDR, Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), and other cutting edge modalities.

In addition to his psychology practice, Dr. Lyons has another strong avocational interest in the practice of the Martial Arts where he earned his Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu- Jitsu (BJJ) in 2005 after ten years of study. He is now a 3rd degree black belt in BJJ and one of the highest ranking Americans in this art. Dr. Lyons has had the opportunity of grappling and training with several professional fighters active in the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC). He believes this training has helped to develop a deep sense of mental strength and emotional resiliency—qualities he strives to develop in his patients.