For those that know me know I love my soaps – in particular Coronation Street and Emmerdale, but also partial to a bit of HollyOaks and Eastenders.
Soaps are a great way to get topics spoken about, many topics controversial at the time of being aired:
- The first lesbian kiss on Brookside with Beth and Margaret
- Domestic violence storyline in Eastenders with Mo and Trevor
- Gay rape in Hollyoaks with Luke
- Transsexual storyline in Coronation Street with Hayley
- Dementia Storyline in Emmerdale with Ashley
- Self harming with Gemma in Hollyoaks
All the above were covered heavily by the media both on television and In the papers leading to lots of debate and conversation on the topics, with lots of individuals and families with REAL lived experience coming forward to share their stories. I am a strong believer that speaking about the “unspeakable” helps in many ways and soaps offer great Conversation starters.
With the storylines above its difficult to believe that
Rightly or wrongly I use soaps as examples for clients to reflect in the counselling room. For clients that watch the soap they find it useful to be able to relate and explain how they are experiencing similar emotions/problems/ stigma etc.
Storylines such as :
- Yasmeen and Geoff in Coronation Street – Domestic abuse storyline
- Bethany in Coronation Street – Grooming Storyline
- Paddy and Chaz in Emmerdale – Pregnancy and diagnosis storyline
- Kieron in Hollyoaks – radicalisation storyline
- Linda in Eastenders – Rape storyline
I really could go on. I find it helps clients to work through their situations through the characters, almost as if watching themselves why getting in touch with their emotions that surround the situation.
As many of you may know a couple of years ago I contacted actress Sally Carmen who plays Abi Franklyn in Coronation Street, to become our Believe Project Patron.
Sallys character Abi has chosen to have her twins adopted to provide them with the opportunity of a better life. Abi is such a likeable character as soon as the character came in the Coronation I knew that she would resignate with so many of the mums that we support as part of our Believe Project at the charity that I founded Motherwell Cheshire. Everything about Abi is so true to life, something I do rattle on about alot!
Soaps are not real, soaps are far fetched at time, but they are fantastic conversation starters for a wide range of topics. Its hard to believe the hysteria that followed the first lesbian kiss in Brookside -but it got the topic spoken about and helped other women open up about their sexuality.
When Gemmas self harm storyline was aired on Hollyoaks I remember so many people starting the conversation about self harming, I had just started my counselling training and remember so many individuals locally and in the media coming forward about self harming. This lead to everybody having a better understanding of self harm.
I am sure that soaps will gone on to tattle more controversial issues in the future and I am sure I will refer to them in many mediums to help get the positive messages across that they create.