Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ)

Key takeaways

The Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ) is a validated 24-item self-report tool that screens for exposure to crime, disasters, and physical or sexual trauma.

Administration takes 10 to 15 minutes and needs no specialist training. Clients answer yes or no to each event, then give their age at the time.

Scoring means tallying the endorsed items in each domain and totaling them, so the questionnaire documents exposure rather than diagnosing PTSD.

A positive screen is a prompt, not a diagnosis. Follow up with a symptom measure such as the PCL-5 when PTSD symptoms are suspected.

Practice management software like Pabau stores completed questionnaires in the client record, so sensitive trauma histories stay encrypted and access-controlled.

The Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ) is a 24-item self-report form that records which potentially traumatic events a client has lived through, and at what age. Psychologist Bonnie Green published it in 1996, and most clients finish it in 10 to 15 minutes.

The form covers three domains: crime, general disasters, and physical or sexual experiences. It documents exposure only. That makes it a screening instrument rather than a diagnostic one, which is the distinction that decides how you use the result.

This guide walks through administration, scoring, and the evidence behind the tool. It also covers cultural adaptation and how to store completed forms safely. The free PDF above is ready to drop into your intake pack today.

What is the Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ)?

The THQ is a 24-item self-administered assessment that measures exposure to potentially traumatic events. Clients mark yes or no for each event and note the age at which it happened. Administration takes roughly 10 to 15 minutes and needs no specialist training.

Symptom measures such as the PCL-5 ask how a client feels now. The THQ asks only what happened. It says nothing about PTSD symptoms or functional impairment, and it was never designed to.

Researchers have validated the questionnaire in trauma-exposed civilians, military personnel, substance-use treatment samples, and multicultural community samples. Its brevity and psychometric record have made it a standard first pass in mental health EMR systems and in psychology intake workflows.

The three trauma domains it covers

The questionnaire sorts exposure into three domains, so you can see both the type and the breadth of what a client has experienced. That structure is what guides your clinical focus afterwards.

• Crime-related trauma: Robbery, assault, mugging, sexual assault, and other interpersonal violence. This domain flags clients who have been victims of violent crime.
• General disasters and trauma: Natural disasters, serious accidents, fires, and comparable events. It captures harm that nobody directed at the client personally.
• Physical and sexual experiences: Childhood abuse, adult sexual assault, incest, and other physical or sexual violence. This domain needs the most care during administration.

Each domain holds several event types, and clients answer yes or no to each one. The form also records the age at which an endorsed event happened. That gives you developmental timing and a rough sense of cumulative burden.

How to administer the questionnaire

The THQ works on paper or as a digital intake form. The sequence below keeps administration both valid and ethical.

1. Give psychoeducation and take consent: Explain that you are collecting trauma history to understand their background and shape treatment. Say that they can skip any item, and confirm consent before you hand the form over.
2. Administer the 24 items: Present each event across the three domains and let the client answer yes or no. Digital intake forms let people complete the questionnaire privately, at their own pace, rather than at a busy front desk.
3. Record the age of occurrence: For every endorsed event, note how old the client was. That timing turns a list of events into a developmental picture.
4. Check how the process landed: Ask whether completing the form stirred up distress. Offer grounding techniques or a crisis referral if it did, and never leave a disclosure unaddressed.
5. Store and review securely: Keep completed forms in an encrypted client record with role-based access. Review the summary with the client and fold it into the treatment plan at the next session.

Most clients finish in 10 to 15 minutes, so the form fits an intake slot without crowding out the rest of the conversation. In practice it rarely travels alone. Many teams attach it to a broader mental health intake form, so the trauma history sits beside presenting problem, history, and risk.

How to score and interpret the results

Scoring is a count, not a calculation. Tally what the client endorsed, then read the pattern underneath the total.

1. Tally each domain: Count the yes answers in crime, in disasters, and in physical or sexual experiences. That gives you three subscale counts.
2. Total the exposure: Add the three subscales together. A higher total means broader exposure, and it says nothing about severity.
3. Read the ages and the patterns: Look for repeated events at similar ages, and for trauma during childhood. Both deserve particular clinical attention.
4. Interpret clinically, not diagnostically: The questionnaire documents exposure. Endorsing events does not diagnose PTSD, depression, or anxiety, and a formal measure such as the PCL-5 or CAPS-5 is what settles that question.

Review the results with the client rather than filing them away, and set the history alongside the rest of the biopsychosocial picture. The pathway below shows where the questionnaire stops and a diagnostic measure takes over.

Psychometric properties and validity

The THQ has solid empirical support behind it. The VA’s National Center for PTSD lists it among the trauma exposure measures it recognizes. The findings that matter in practice:

• Reliability: Internal consistency and test-retest reliability are good across samples, with Cronbach’s alpha above 0.80 in most studies.
• Validity: Scores correlate moderately to strongly with other validated trauma measures, and they separate trauma-exposed groups from non-exposed ones.
• Cultural adaptation: Peer-reviewed research in PubMed Central reports successful linguistic and cultural adaptations, with event descriptions reworked for local relevance.
• Multi-population validation: Community, trauma-exposed, substance-use treatment, and military samples have all been studied, which supports broad clinical use.

That record is why the questionnaire holds up as a defensible first pass at trauma history, including in research protocols.

Who should use the THQ?

Any clinician who needs a documented trauma history at intake can administer it. These settings get the most out of it:

• Therapists and counselors: Establish a trauma-informed baseline at the first assessment.
• Psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners: Screen for exposure before medication management or a psychiatric diagnosis.
• Psychologists: Document trauma history for diagnostic formulation, treatment planning, and research.
• Clinical social workers: Fold trauma screening into biopsychosocial assessment and discharge planning.
• Occupational and speech therapists: Screen for developmental trauma during pediatric or trauma-sensitive assessments.
• Addiction treatment programs: Identify trauma and substance-use comorbidity early enough to shape the treatment plan.
• Medical practices with integrated mental health: Screen primary care patients for exposure as part of a whole-health assessment.

One limitation matters more than the rest. The THQ is not built to carry a clinical decision on its own. Results need a qualified clinician’s interpretation, and a suspected PTSD picture needs a formal diagnostic assessment. Exposure by itself never justifies medication or crisis intervention.

THQ vs. other trauma screening tools

Several trauma instruments overlap, and the THQ is the one that asks what happened rather than how the client feels now. Here is how the four compare.

The key distinction: the THQ screens exposure. Reach for the PCL-5 when you need symptom severity, and for the TLEQ when you need frequency data alongside exposure. What the THQ gives you is speed and a long validation record.

Adapting the questionnaire for multilingual clients

Trauma events carry different meanings across cultures, and wording that works in one population can miss experiences in another. Research shows the THQ adapts well when four changes are made.

• Simplify the language: Drop the jargon, and make sure translations carry the meaning rather than the literal phrasing.
• Localize the event descriptions: Swap generic wording for regional examples. A “natural disaster” means monsoons in South Asia and wildfires in the American West.
• Add trauma types the population actually faces: Forced migration, war exposure, persecution, and structural violence belong in the list where they apply.
• Re-test the adapted version: Any adaptation needs fresh psychometric evaluation in the target population before you rely on the scores.

Look for a peer-reviewed adaptation in your client’s language before you translate anything yourself. Academic databases and the published trauma literature are the place to check. Where no validated version exists, work with cultural and linguistic advisers before you administer the English one.

How Pabau supports trauma screening and secure records

Collecting a trauma history creates a duty of care around the record itself. The tools you use to run a therapy practice are the same ones that have to keep it safe. Practice management software like Pabau covers that path, from sending the form out to controlling who can open it later.

Clients fill the questionnaire in on a tablet or at home, so nobody answers a page about sexual assault at a busy front desk. The answers land encrypted in the client record, next to the notes, the treatment plan, and any risk assessment. Role-based access keeps that material away from staff who have no reason to read it.

Automated workflows can flag a high-risk profile and route that client into a safety protocol. Nobody has to spot it in a pile of forms first. HIPAA and GDPR controls come as standard, and every subscription includes every feature. Nothing about trauma screening sits behind a higher tier.

Collect trauma histories without the paper trail

Pabau’s digital intake forms send the Trauma History Questionnaire out before the appointment and file the answers straight into an encrypted client record. Your team spends less time chasing paper and more time in the session.

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Conclusion

The THQ earns its place because it is short, free, and well validated, and because it asks a question most intake packs skip entirely. Adopt it and you stop inferring trauma history from what a client happens to mention.

The trade-off is that a completed form creates a duty you then have to meet. A client who discloses childhood abuse on page two expects the next conversation to reflect it. Decide in advance who reads the form, how quickly, and what happens when the answers are heavy.

Download the template, add it to your intake pack, and agree on the follow-up pathway before the first client fills it in. Book a demo to see how Pabau collects and protects trauma histories for therapy practices.

Continue your research

Need to measure symptoms after a positive screen? PCL-5 template gives you the 20-item symptom measure that picks up where trauma exposure screening stops.

Looking for a fuller diagnostic framework? Psychiatric evaluation template structures the diagnostic interview that a trauma history feeds into.

Worried about a client who discloses active risk? Mental health safety plan gives you a documented protocol to reach for in the same session.

Running trauma work in a group setting? Informed consent in group therapy covers consent where disclosure happens in front of other clients.

Frequently asked questions