MIT MyLife Services

MIT provides MyLife Services for all staff, faculty, postdocs—and members of their households—to support health and well-being. The program offers confidential, short-term counseling, consultation, research, and referrals for emotional and work-life balance issues. You can reach out to MyLife Services for:

• Financial Consultation: Help with debt management, budgeting, and financial planning.
• Legal Assistance: Legal consultation with an attorney, with referrals for most legal issues.
• Stress Reduction: Assessment of stress level and techniques/tips for managing stress.
• Short-term Counseling: Face-to-face, phone, or video sessions to help address emotional issues, or problems with alcohol or drugs for yourself or someone you care about.
• Crisis Counseling: Counseling and consultation for individuals, HR, managers, and the community before, during, and after traumatic events such as suicide, violence, and natural and human-made disasters.
• Grief Counseling: Supportive counseling and consultation for individuals and families who have experienced a loss.
• Peer Support Groups: Connect with peers on topics including anxiety, depression, Bipolar disorder, addiction recovery, grief, and parenting.
• Manager Consultation: Guidance for managers to skillfully navigate workplace challenges while maintaining boundaries.
• Parenting/Child Care Resources: Research and referrals for a variety of child care needs and parenting questions.
• Sleep Consultation: Tips and tools to help you get a good night’s rest.
• Career Assessment: Consultation on career advancement, career exploration, and resume review.
• Nutrition Consultation: Support from a nutritionist on weight management, allergies, and other dietary concerns.
• Work-life Resources: Targeted research and referrals for everything from relocation services to pet sitting.

Welcome – During regular business hours (8:30 a.m.  to 5 p.m. ET), your call will be promptly answered by a MyLife Services staff member asking, “How can I help you?” Within seconds, you will be connected to a Master’s or Ph.D.-level counselor or a Work-Life Specialist (child care, elder care, legal, financial, etc.) as appropriate. Additionally, email and Live Chat assistance is available during regular business hours.

Questions – The counselor or specialist will explain MyLife Services and its confidentiality policy, then ask you some questions about your situation. His or her goal is to understand your needs and identify the type of support that will be most helpful to you.

Support – Based on your needs, this same counselor or specialist will work with you until the appropriate assistance is obtained. This could include counseling, research related to issues or resources, or referrals to local counselors, service providers, and other experts.

Follow-up – MyLife Services staff will always follow up with you to ensure that your needs have been met and ask if there is anything else they can do for you. That’s because the ultimate purpose of MyLife Services is to help you manage the challenges and demands that interfere with your ability to be focused at home and at work.

MyLife Services counselors are available 24/7. If you would like to speak with a counselor for immediate support or crisis response, press "1" when you hear the prompted recording, or stay on the line. (For other non-urgent issues, press “4” to leave a message, and your call will be returned the next business day.)

When you are connected with a counselor or specialist:

Questions – The counselor or specialist will explain MyLife Services and its confidentiality policy, then ask you some questions about your situation. His or her goal is to understand your needs and identify the type of support that will be most helpful to you.

Support – Based on your needs, this same counselor or specialist will work with you until the appropriate assistance is obtained. This could include counseling, research related to issues or resources, or referrals to local counselors, service providers, and other experts.

Follow-up – MyLife Services staff will always follow up with you to ensure that your needs have been met and ask if there is anything else they can do for you. That’s because the ultimate purpose of MyLife Services is to help you manage the challenges and demands that interfere with your ability to be focused at home and at work.

Depending on the reason for the call, your household member will speak with either a Master’s or Ph.D.-level counselor, or a Work-Life Specialist. MyLife Services will explain the confidentiality of the call and then ask questions about the reason for the call. Your household member will not need to provide your name or the name of any other MIT-affiliated relation. If further resources are needed, your household member may be asked to provide his/her name and contact information.

You can call 24/7 and speak with a Master’s or Ph.D.-level counselor, confidentially. You can choose to continue with your MyLife Services counselor by phone, if that is most convenient, or you can request to see a different licensed counselor in person, for free and confidential meetings, near home or work, or at Lincoln Laboratory.

Each person receives some free counseling sessions per life concern. For example, you may need help after the death of a loved one, and later want guidance on a relationship challenge. MyLife Services will provide free counseling sessions for each of those concerns. You can see the same counselor each time, or request one with different expertise or a different location.

Your health insurance is not involved in your initial MyLife Services counseling sessions. However, if you choose to continue in counseling, MyLife Services will do everything they can to make sure your initial counselor is also in your health insurance network of providers so that you can continue seamlessly.

What is covered in a 30-minute legal consultation?
The consultation is an opportunity to meet with a legal professional that handles the area of law you need for up to 30 minutes, free of charge. You can outline your matter, let the attorney know your needs and concerns, and ultimately determine if you want or need to retain the services of an attorney. During the consultation, the attorney is not obligated to provide any work that would constitute representation of a client. This would include items such as document review, document preparation, or providing strict legal advice.

MyLife Services connected me to CLC for ongoing legal services. How do I know that the attorney is reputable?
CLC seeks out attorneys for their legal network based on the following criteria:

• Must be practicing law for a minimum of five years
• Must carry their own Malpractice Insurance
• Must be in good standing and have zero disciplinary actions from the attorney’s state bar association

CLC re-certifies each of their attorneys on an annual basis to ensure that these standards are met. Attorneys are asked to update CLC whenever their contact information or area of practice has changed. However, if you run into difficulty reaching the attorney, please call CLC for assistance.

Legal disclaimer: Should you retain an attorney through a MyLife Services referral, you are doing so outside the EAP services provided through MyLife Services, and you are responsible for all fees and costs associated with legal services. 

MyLife Services cannot provide legal consultation for issues related to employment law. However, they can assist you in locating resources in your community.

We encourage you to use MyLife Services whenever the need arises. You can call for multiple concerns – at the same time or at different times. You can call for help with a legal concern and also request a sleep consultation. Later, you may need summer camp research assistance or help with a budget or career assessment. MyLife Services is available when you need it.

MyLife Services will help find appropriate child care settings based on your criteria. They will ask you questions about location, in-home care, family vs. day care centers, after school care, summer camps, price range, etc. Based on your criteria, you will be sent a personalized referral list of licensed and screened child care providers, along with information on child care availability, cost, times of day, transportation and other areas you indicated. MyLife Services offers this research and referral service at no cost, but you are responsible for child care fees. They will also work with you to help find subsidies for child care if you are eligible.

MyLife Services offers unlimited, confidential manager consultations. Any staff with roles involving the management of individuals or teams, including local HR, can utilize this service. Consultations help managers skillfully navigate workplace challenges while maintaining boundaries.

Examples include:

• Mental health concerns impacting performance
• Proactive planning for difficult conversations with staff
• Grief affecting individuals and teams
• Effectively referring an employee to MyLife Services

MyLife Services counselors do not take the place of MIT's Human Resources Officers (HROs) or advise on specific MIT policies.

All contact with MyLife Services is confidential. The MIT MyLife Services benefit is administered by an outside organization, KGA, Inc., a respected provider of Employee Assistance Programs. MyLife Services’ staff never tells anyone at MIT who called or the specifics of any situation. The only exceptions are those that KGA is required to report per state and/or federal law.

MyLife Services are available to members of the MIT community and their household members anywhere in the United States.

MyLife Services is only for members of the MIT community—staff, postdoc associates, postdoc fellows, and faculty—and household members. If you are concerned about a friend, you can call MyLife Services for a consultation about how to assist him or her.

MyLife Services welcomes you to check it out. Call with a small or big problem and get help right away. No matter what you are facing, the staff at MyLife Services will treat you with respect and empathy. They recognize the challenge of asking for help and understand that it can be difficult to make the first call for assistance. It is the goal of each MyLife Services staff member to make you feel supported, understood, and secure in the confidentiality of your conversation.

Below are the members of the MIT Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Advisory Committee. MIT EAP is now known as MyLife Services.

Employee Assistance Program Advisory Committee
Sandy Alexandre	Associate Professor, Literature	SHASS
Sharon Bridburg	Director of Strategic Talent Management	Human Resources
Eva Cardarelli	Employee Relations Manager	Lincoln Laboratory
Kristen Cascio	Program Manager, Work-Life	Human Resources
Martha Collins	Director, Employee and Labor Relations	Human Resources
Steve Graves	Abraham Siegel Professor of Management	Sloan School of Management
Ronnie Haas	Senior Advisor to the Vice President	Human Resources
Ann Mac Kenzie	Director, Benefits	Human Resources
Jodie Nosiglia	Senior Human Resources Officer	Human Resources
Douglas Pfeiffer	Assistant Provost for Administration	Office of the Provost
David Warren Randall	Senior Associate Dean, Student Support and Wellbeing	Office of the Dean for Student Life
Allison Romantz	Counsel	Office of the General Counsel
Judi Segall	Ombudsperson	Office of the President
Lianne Shields	Senior Advisor to the Vice President	Human Resources
Karen Singleton	Associate Medical Director; Chief, Mental Health and Counseling Service	MIT Medical
Ann Skoczenski	Director of Postdoctoral Services	Office of the Vice President for Research
Ebony Smith	Executive Director, Engineering Outreach Programs	School of Engineering
Jennifer Walsh	Director, HR Projects and Compliance	Human Resources

Download a list of MyLife Services.

Download a flyer for managers.

Download a virtual peer support flyer.

Download a flyer on support for adult ADHD.

Just call or email MyLife Services at 844-405-LIFE (844-405-5433) or (TTY) 866-892-7162 and info@MITMyLifeServices.com. Or call or email Work-Life at 617-253-1592 and worklife@mit.edu.