Mybe try more specific questions in the journal. Like, if you ask "who is John?" and get "John" as an answer...try "how old is john?" "What does John like to do?", etc.

As for getting them to listen...I've been in T for DID for 6 years and it seems like they are only recently started listening to me. However, it turns out that the listening problem was two-ways...I wasn't listening to them either.