Emmerdale star Emma Atkins reveals complicated therapy session in Charity Dingle PTSD story

Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) has had a tough life, and recent Emmerdale episodes have seen her face yet more trauma after accidentally killing Damon Harris (Robert Beck).

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).

‘She’s constantly reliving the moment and it’s going to lead to a lot of PTSD, really,’ actress Emma Atkins revealed. ‘She’s just putting the walls up. The shutters are coming down and she’s just going through her own hell.

Charity is set to really struggle

‘She’s locking it all in and trying to compartmentalise it which makes it worse. She’s just a ticking time bomb herself in terms of she doesn’t know how to deal with it. She’s lost.’

Charity’s PTSD leaves her unable to sleep properly and, unable to share her true feelings with husband Mack, she ends up snapping at son Moses in upcoming scenes.

Things only get worse when she later gets a call from his school, and Charity learns he has been fighting other children over rumours about his mum being a murderer.

Gutted by how much Damon has affected not only her life, but also her children’s, she wonders how long she can keep up that act of being okay.

As Charity’s symptoms worsen, her past traumas will end up coming back to the forefront, as Emma revealed.

‘It’s going to start spiralling and everything starts to come up to the surface and be revisited again. I have been teased of a therapy session…’

Emma went on to explain that one surprising Emmerdale character forces Charity to sit down and evaluate things.

‘There is one person who was there for her in a very unusual fashion,’ she said. ‘They sit down and this person forces her to open up and I think that’s a dangerous thing to do because you don’t know where you’re going to go and I think she becomes quite visceral and horrible to watch I guess. But this person won’t leave it…’

With so much trauma in Charity’s past, there is certainly a lot to unpack.

‘It’s a therapy session that would last like a decade, surely, but it’s in one episode. So yeah, I think there’s probably too much to unpack in that one session.’

In terms of where the story will progress, Emma is looking forward to what the future holds, and revealed that she had already done a lot of research.

‘With Charity’s PTSD storyline as well, that’s going to be so interesting. The researchers have sent me loads of stuff which I’m reading and it’s going to be hard but it’s going to be rewarding.’