sometimes when I get stuck, my therapist just simply asks "what?". If i just sit there she knows that whatever I was thinking is difficult to express. So she just waits. If I struggle long enough, she will initiate a conversation that she thinks is along the lines of what is troubling me. She will ask if she is right? Is she on track? The she waits again to see if I will join. She validates my feelings by acknowledging how hard it is for me to talk about my abuse. So yes, I have spoken about the abuse. That took a long time. What is hard for me now is talking about how to work on how the abuse hurt me and how it affects me and how to move past it all. my therapist does share stories and examples. She watches very close to see how much I can tolerate...she knows she has gone too far if I drift off. Then she backs off. I think this approach is akin to "emotional stretching"...loosening up that trauma muscle a little bit at a time until it doesn't "pull" so much. I think that is what my therapist is doing with me...slowly, but surely..moving ahead ever so slightly...not losing my trust by pushing me further than I can handle at any given time. I appreciate that more than anything.