Need the perspective of a mental health professional with a deity.

[wyceeric]

I also understand that they will insist that their faith is different from delusion. My question is, what does this look like in practical terms as it relates to their duties as professionals. I still haven't seen any guidelines from a professional organization.

Or, put another way, how do I know that they can tell the difference?

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by wyceeric

I also understand that they will insist that their faith is different from delusion. My question is, what does this look like in practical terms as it relates to their duties as professionals. I still haven't seen any guidelines from a professional organization.

Or, put another way, how do I know that they can tell the difference?

One can expect that if you got a talk-to-God type doing an assessment, they might see talking to God as possibly more OK than talking to aliens, or invisible giant rabbits, or some other imaginary talker. So the main time his belief gets to be a problem would be if the patient describes talking to God, or Christian-approved things like angels maybe.

I also think that talk-to-God belief may be fairly widespread among the general populace in an area, and still be pretty scarce among the mental health professionals. Still, agree completely with Mark B that you should be able to request a referral to a secular professional if that is your preference.