What may be felt when one of a person's four key spiritual relationships (with other people, with oneself, with the world around, or with ‘Life’ itself) is traumatised or broken. A bad trauma in one of the first three relationships can lead to damage to the last of them – that of the relationship with Life itself. For example, a wife deserted by her husband for another woman may not only feel devastated by the absence of her partner, but may also feel pain caused by the shattering of her beliefs about faithfulness, hope, love, security, etc. It is as if there is a picture at the centre of each person of what life should be about – whether or not held in a frame by a belief in God. This picture can be smashed by a particular trauma, so that nothing makes sense any more. The individual cannot get things together; everything loses its meaning. This shattering of someone's picture of life is the source of the deepest pain in any spiritual trauma. The connection is often made between spiritual pain and meaninglessness. If the shattering of the picture, on the other hand, is done by the individual – for instance, by breaking his or her own moral or religious code – the pain may take the form of guilt and associated feelings. If they seek therapy, it should be based on helping them to recognise and come to terms with this ‘pain beneath the pain’.