THE CONTENT OF PASTORAL COUNCELING AS PRECONDITION OF PROFESSIONALIZATION OF CARITATIVE SOCIAL WORK

Pastoral counseling has long history; its roots are found deep in the concept of “shepherding” (or care for the soul, poimenics) which originates in Christ’s approach to men. However, interest about various counseling methods today beyond the Church setting is called by expanding of the identity question of the social work profession. Currently social work is done in circles where meaning of religious issues rises above the average in society and clients express their wish to cooperate with social workers who care for their faith and religion. Also it should be noted that more attention is paid to the Church as an institution which is an important provider of social services for the needy, rejected, for orphans, risk families etc. Consequently, the task of the present article is to shed light on pastoral counseling content taking place in professional setting.KEY WORDS: counseling, structure of human consciousness, imago Dei, Eastern Church fathers, professional qualities of counselor, caritative social work.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/tbb.v67i2.852