Military life comes with many triumphs as well as challenges. For these challenges, services are put in place to help families get the support they need. One of these services is the Military and Family Life Consultant Program (MFLC). It's a program that offers counseling services by licensed professionals that have specialized training in helping military personnel and their dependents.
About the Military and Family Life Consultant
Consultants work under clinical supervision and a military point of contact (POC). The role of these consultants is to asses the needs of individuals in need of services and then provide support and/or refer them to resources as needed.
Consultants have experience in many areas:
- Children and adolescents
- Couples and families
- Grief and loss
- Veterans or Veteran Affairs
- Military personnel and families
- School systems
- Work in various environments
- Rapid assessment and problem resolution
How the MFLC Program Helps
The MFLC program provides counseling services to military families for the following reasons:
- Relationships
- Crisis intervention
- Stress management
- Grief
- Occupational
- Other individual and family issues
The program also offers psycho-educational presentations to units on many different topics such as:
- Deployments
- Grief/Loss
- Reunion/Reintegration
- Stress and Coping
How Consultants Help
Services provided by MFLC are short-term and non-medical. All information is confidential, no records are made and information is not shared. Counseling is informal and guide individuals through the effects of military life and provide support through the many tribulations. They do not diagnose mental disorders or provide psychological treatment.
Some of the main ways counselors help are:
- Use techniques to improve problem solving process
- Provide insight to increase individual and family competency
- Empower with information and coping skills to increase confidence in handling military life stressors
- Ensure that personal issues do not hamper operational readiness
Basically, counselors help you understand your situation, find ways to change it and move towards a better place mentally and emotionally.
MFLC For Kids
Kids also have a place in the MFLC. Through the Child and Youth Program, a Summer Enrichment Program provides a structured and supportive learning environment during the summer months. This greatly helps parents who are temporarily single due to a deployments and need a beneficial place for their children's care.
How to Begin Services
MFLC is an organization of local program administered through local channels. You should talk to your Commanding Officer regarding how to contact the MFLC where you are stationed or where your family is living if you are on deployment.
You can contact counselors over the phone by calling (866) 966-1020, by emailing resources@dcoeoutreach.org or utilizing the online chat room. All services provided by the MFLC are offered free of charge, which means that finances can never get in the way of getting the support you and your family need.
Utilize Your Support Network
If you are in the military, both you and your family have extra stressors that civilian families do not have. Coping skills do not come naturally to everyone; you should not be shy about getting assistance dealing with these problems. Simple problems can often be solved before they become bigger ones with the help of an outside observer. The Military Family and Life Consultant Program provides assistance specifically for this purpose.
