The deeper dynamics of pastoral care Church scandals relating to sexual boundary violations by clergy have made all professionals more aware of the underlying dynamics of the pastoral relationship. Pamela Cooper-White plumbs these depths and proposes a framework for understanding the relationship and the root causes of misconduct and effective care. Rather than simply iterate the ethical dos and don'ts of counseling, Cooper-White focuses on transference and countertransference--the thoughts, feelings, fantasies, impulses, and bodily sensations that arise in the helped person and caregiver, respectively. This relational mix generates the pattern of meaning in counseling and positive or negative healing that evolves in the relationship over time. To her new paradigm Cooper-White adds the theological context. She discusses how pastors and pastoral counselors can tolerate strong feelings that arise in the relationship, recognize them, examine them, and use them to develop creative, religiously helpful strategies. Instead of counselor's attempting to suppress their feelings, then acting them out in inappropriate ways, Cooper-White's relational pastoral theology will support responsible and empathic intervention and healthier boundaries, ministries, and ministerial well-being.
