What is the MFLCP?
Military and Family Life Counselor,
Child and Youth Behavioral MFLC
at Liberty Hill Middle School
BACKGROUND:
The Military Family Life Counselor program provides confidential, non-medical, short term, situational, problem-solving counseling services to service members and the families of the active duty, National Guard and reserve regardless of activation status, Coast Guard and their families when activated for the Navy, and members of the Civilian Expeditionary Workforce and their families. The non-medical counseling approach is psycho-educational, which helps participants learn to anticipate and resolve challenges associated with the military lifestyle. Support is aimed at preventing the development or exacerbation of mental health conditions that may detract from military and family readiness. The contract is centrally managed by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy. These general program guidelines do not supersede service regulations. All MFLCs, CYB-MFLC provide confidential non-medical counseling services face-toface, on and off of military installations. Counselors rotate at locations worldwide.
• Military and family life counselors:
An MFLC assists service members and their families with circumstances occurring across the military life cycle and aims to enhance operational and family readiness. They provide support to individuals, couples, families and groups for a range of issues including, but not limited to: deployment stress, reintegration, relocation adjustment, separation, anger management, conflict resolution, parenting, parent/child communication, relationship/family issues, coping skills, homesickness, and grief and loss.
• Child and youth behavioral military and family life counselors:
Children and youth behavioral military and family life counselors support and augment Child and Youth Programs, Department of Defense Education Activity schools, local education agencies, National Military Family Association, Operation Purple Camps and Family Retreats, National Guard and reserve camps, and Operation Military Kids camps and Special Operations Command. The CYB-MFLCs provide non-medical support to eligible faculty, staff, parents and children for issues including, but not limited to, school adjustment, deployment and reunion adjustments, and parent-child communications. They may observe, participate and engage in activities with children and youth, provide coaching, guidance and support to staff and parents, and model behavior management techniques for staff and parents. Parents must acknowledge, in writing the availability of CYB-MFLC support and whether or not their child may receive assistance by a CYB-MFLC).. If nonmilitary-connected youth are a group setting with military-connected youth, the CYB-MFLC shall support the group as a whole to include both the militaryconnected and nonmilitary-connected youth.
• All work is conducted within staff or parent line of sight.
BASIC GUIDELINES FOR COUNSELING SUPPORT:
All MFLCs and CYB-MFLCs have a master’s degree or doctorate in a mental healthrelated field, such as social work, psychology, marriage and family therapy or counseling, and possess a valid unrestricted counseling license or certification from a state, the District of Columbia, a U.S. commonwealth, or a U.S. territory that grants authority to provide counseling services as an independent practitioner in a respective field.
Eligible participants may receive up to 12 sessions per issue of non-medical counseling from MFLCs and CYB-MFLCS.
Counseling is private and confidential, with the exception of mandatory state, federal, and military duty-to-warn reporting requirements.
Situations meeting the diagnostic criteria for common mental disorders, such as those found in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will be referred to military medical mental health care providers, TRICARE or other providers of professional mental health care.
The MFLC program can provide an alternate source of assistance in addressing issues encountered by military families. However, diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression, or other medical/mental health disorders are outside the scope of MFLC support.
Counseling support is confidential and formal counseling records are not maintained. Military family life counselors may not make entries in any records or databases.
SCHEDULING
The normal MFLC, CYB-MFLC work schedule is a highly flexible 40 hours per week. Appointments may be made by contacting the MFLC in person or by phone or by contacting the school counselors office.