He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama in 2002 after completing his pre-doctoral internship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center Internship Training Consortium. He then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. In addition to conducting research on laboratory models of impulsive decision-making with particular focus on sexual decisions, he maintains an interest in research on anxiety and trauma. Every fall, Dr. Lawyer teaches a graduate seminar in psychopathology and treatment to students in the ISU doctoral program in clinical psychology where he promotes an empirical approach to the advancement of effective treatments for psychological problems.