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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Gemma Jones

Coronation Street's Maria actress Samia Longchambon opens up on therapy for anxiety

Coronation Street character Maria Windass is currently facing a turbulent time on the ITV soap.

Played by Samia Longchambon, the audience have watched on as Maria is on the receiving end of abuse after someone made a deep fake video to make it appear as though she had appeared in a pornographic film. The abuse escalated to the point of death threats as the soap character desperately tries to resolve the situation.

It turns out that while off screen, Samia has anxiety troubles of her own. Appearing on ITV's Lorraine on Thursday the actress said she had received therapy to try and slow her thoughts down.

READ MORE: ITV Coronation Street viewers 'unmask' Maria Windass' abuser after sex tape horror

Lorraine said: "You seem happy, really really happy. Everything is going well with the career. You've got your husband, you've got your children, everything is good. But like an awful lot of us you still get a little bit anxious?"

Samia proved her anxiousness as she "touched wood" on the table in front of her. She said: "Sorry, I need to touch wood when you say things like that."

The Scottish host asked her about having cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in the past. Samia said it worked for her and she even went on to do a course in it herself.

She explained: "I just thought it would be fun to learn from the therapist's angle how it all works and go behind the scenes of the therapy in a way. I did it to help myself with it as well and it's great. It just gives you a different way of looking at things whereas normally you might kind of catastrophise things - I do anyway. It gives you a different way to deal with it and slows your thoughts down a bit."

Lorraine admitted that she has been watching old re-runs of Coronation Street and is currently up to where Samia first appeared on the soap as Maria. She recalled Maria being engaged to Tyrone Dobbs - a storyline which happened 22 years ago.

Throwback images of Samia appeared on screen as Lorraine asked: "Do you remember your first day on set?" The actress replied: "I do."

She added: "It was Easter Sunday in April 2000. It was amazing."

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