In the midst of fixing a car two men left a pan of gasoline next to the water heater inside their residence. They then abandoned the pan and at the same time their loving mother started walking outside toward them. Just as she made it out, the water heater exploded. But her grown autistic son was trapped inside the house. In an instant she ran back in and carried her son out of the fire and into safety. This lady was named Grace; she was the grandmother to LISD’s Whole Child Series panelist and licensed professional counselor and supervisor Cheryl Rayl.

“When [my grandmother] came out her legs were on fire,” Rayl said. “She couldn’t walk for a year. She would’ve done that for any of her kids or any person. She was just a really awesome person.”

Rayl’s grandmother was the same woman who in the middle of winter asked Rayl what she wanted for breakfast. When Grace received the peculiar response of fried fish, instead of dismissing the response and asking for something easier, she went out all bundled up and physically caught fish for young Rayl. She then fried the fish to perfection just the way Rayl liked them.

Her grandmother went on to be the inspiration for Rayl’s future counseling center, Grace Counseling.

In 2013, Rayl opened Grace Counseling with the intention of providing counseling to anyone who needed help for little to no money.

“I always said that when I retired I was going to open something like [Grace Counseling], and I was going to have interns and [I was] just going to take care of people who couldn’t afford counseling,” Rayl said.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a “good business model” so Rayl hired counselors to help keep the center open. Along with licensed counselors, practicum students and interns work at the center to continue Rayl’s passion of helping people who can’t afford counseling.

“There is nobody that cannot afford to come here because I have somebody that can see them,” Rayl said. “A practicum student at the minimum, if they don’t have insurance.”

The center has expanded and today she has 17 counselors, three practicum students and three interns all located in Lewisville.

When she first went into college Rayl focused on engineering because of her family’s legacy in the profession.

“I’m a social worker at heart,” Rayl said. “I just had a hard time seeing myself that way because I grew up in a family that didn’t think counseling works. They kind of look down on that entire profession and so that’s something I’ve had to overcome.”

During her time as an engineering student, Rayl received a C on a test and started spiraling. The next thing she knew, she was suicidal. After being referred to a psychologist by the head of the department, she started seeing one. A few months after her first session, the psychologist convinced her to go into her lifelong passion: mental health.

Rayl graduated from Texas A&M in 1998 with a double bachelor’s degree in math and English and went on to receive a graduates degree in clinical psychology. Then her career launched.

“I started off as a therapist, then I was a marketing person and then I was a CEO,” Rayl said. “I ran hospitals for about 15 years and then I opened [Grace Counseling] then I quit [my CEO job] because it was too much to do both things. In my middle years making money was an important thing to me, but always in the back of my mind I wanted to get back to client services.”

She became passionate about helping youth, particularly those affected by schizophrenia. Her interest originated when she was in college studying the subject.

“When I was in school I was so fascinated by [the abnormal psycho] then I started working in a hospital where a lot of people had schizophrenia,” Rayl said.

Soon after, the disease touched home. Rayl’s son developed schizophrenia at 19 years old. Even though she had all of the training to spot it early, she didn’t see it coming.

“I didn’t know anyone [with the disease] personally, anyone in my family, anyone really,” Rayl said. “So when it first happened with him, I thought boy he’s gotten into some really bad drugs because he saying some things that are really bizarre.”

Her passion for not only schizophrenia but mental health in general heightened, and she became even more motivated to educate her community on the truth behind mental health.

“Mental [health] is exactly the same as physical health and everybody [is affected]; you’re not going to go through your life without having a cold,” Rayl said. “There is no way to separate the mental from the physical. Even the thoughts in your brain right now, they are physical manifestations. There are neurons being released, the neurotransmitters are going off in [your head].”

Her efforts to battle the misunderstandings of mental health and schizophrenia within her community have morphed from a frustration into a new motivation. She is pushed to help everyone win their own personal battles and to help heal communities after a loss. So when a suicide crisis happened close to home, Rayl and her team acted promptly.

Unfortunately another team was already in the process of helping heal the community. But LISD’s director of guidance and counseling services Monya Crow reached out to Rayl in hopes that she would participate as a panelist in the premiere of the district’s Whole Child Series.

“There was an outpouring of support and request for information and opportunities to have a community conversation about mental health and what support looks like,” Crow said. “The main goal [of the series] is to bring often stigmatized topic such as mental health and suicide out into the open.”

Rayl and others, including licensed therapist and supervisor David Huffman, were soon compiled into a panel consisting of mostly health care professionals and spoke about mental health in the younger generation. They encouraged parents to be familiar with the signs and warnings around potential suicide. The first meeting was Tuesday, Feb. 28.

“It’s a great opportunity to connect with the parents,” Rayl said. “Parents, a lot of times, are like the school handles what the school handles and we handle what we handle at home, and [then there’s] this disconnect.”

The district members and panelists hope to raise awareness within and beyond the community. As a whole, they are trying to inform the public on how to handle certain situations ranging from suicide to healthy diets.

“The most important part about the child series is that it began by connecting parents, teachers, students and therapists,” Huffman said. “[We’re all] coming together in one place and talking about children’s health and how we can best support our children and our community and thinking of it like a collective experience.”

Rayl wishes to not only heal hurting communities but people hurting everywhere. Her passion and drive alone push her to combat the stigmas placed upon mental health.

“I think seeing people change is so gratifying,” Rayl said. “I feel like it gives me purpose.”