Charity Dingle’s life to change forever in ‘amazing’ therapy session that explores her traumas
Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) has had a tough life, and an upcoming Emmerdale episode is set to explore some of her past traumas as she undergoes a therapy session, as a new spoiler video shows.
Ever since fatally shooting Damon ‘Harry’ Harris (Robert Beck) on Christmas Day, Charity has been struggling to cope.
In a bid to save Mackenzie Boyd’s (Lawrence Robb) life, Charity wrestled Damon for his gun, and ended up shooting him in the process.
Since then, Charity has been seriously shaken up and experiencing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), including flashbacks and anxiety attacks.
More recently, this has led her to stab Mack while experiencing hallucinations, believing that she was defending herself from Damon.
In upcoming scenes, Charity will visit a psychologist for a therapy session, where she hopes to get answers about how to cope with her PTSD.
‘Dr. Cavanagh refers her to a psychologist and they have this amazing therapy session which starts off where Charity is in complete denial,’ actress Emma Atkins revealed.
‘And she’s being very sarcastic and completely rude to this lovely woman who’s trying to help her open up these doors to healing and finding some way in and every time she tries she blocks her.’
In a new spoiler video, Charity clearly isn’t happy about the direction the therapy session is taking, though psychologist Una doesn’t give up, despite Charity’s insinuations that she isn’t very good at her job.
Eventually, the therapist makes a breakthrough, as Emma explains.
‘So it starts off with a few scenes where it’s just Charity blocking, and then it’s beautiful in a way because the therapist without Charity knowing says, “look why not talk about a lovely childhood memory, a pet that you might have had”. And she goes “oh I had a dog when I was a kid”.
‘And the journey starts then because she starts to go right back into the dog and how the dog suddenly disappears. And why does the dog disappear? Oh, because the father. Why is the father taking the dog away? She had issues with a dad and it all starts to unravel.
‘Because as much as she’s going through the hell now, I think there’s so much PTSD attached to her past as well. So it’s all relevant, I guess.
‘And it’s a lovely episode to discuss how much she truly loves Mack and it’s the one person that she feels that she has begun to really let go and love and let her guard down. And this person is perfect for her and she feels she’s completely ruined it and lost his trust.’
In the aftermath of her therapy session, Charity ignores Mack’s babbling and leaves the house, clearly tormented.
Mack is left confused when he comes downstairs to find her gone, and soon realises that he has made a big mistake by not giving her the space she asked for.
After a worrying search, Mack finally finds her car broken down at the side of a road, and they are forced to face up to the state of their relationship.
Will they get over this hurdle, or will things finally reach a head?