Part of the resistance to identifying traumatic childhood experience in patients centers on not knowing how to respond when the answer is Yes. A good sentence to keep in mind is "Tell me how that has affected you later in life." For instance, "I see on the Questionnaire that you were frequently beaten as a little girl. Tell me how that has affected you later in life." or "I see on the Questionnaire that your mother was a drug addict. Can you tell me how that has affected you later in life."