The US Air Force Academy recently reminded its cadets and staff that they have access to free, confidential counseling virtually anytime they want it through the Military Family Life Consultants:

The four Academy MFLCs can meet with service members, their families, Defense Department civilians, or cadets on- or off-base to provide situational, problem-solving counseling support and education in the areas of family separation, grief and loss, holiday stress, intimacy and trust, stresses of military life and access to self-help resources.

The MFLCs do not keep records and their solutions are “non-medical.” Further, they “follow strict confidentiality guidelines” — meaning unless a person says they are going to harm themselves or someone else, everything is kept just between those two people.

The MFLC program is not new, nor is it unique to the Academy. It does not seem to be as well known as it could be, however. A few atheists who have insisted on the need for “atheist chaplains” seem to have been befuddled at the fact they can already get exactly what they want — non-religious based, confidential counseling — from the MFLCs currently serving the troops.

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