Why I decided to face one of my worst fears and touch a snake
Kalli Anderson has always been terrified of snakes.
The Out in the Open producer thinks she may have at least partly learned the fear from her mom, who has a snake phobia.
"As a kid, I witnessed my mom being afraid of snakes, and I think that had a big impact on me," says Kalli.
Now a mom herself, Kalli is trying not to pass on her fear of snakes to her two young children.
She came up with the idea of trying to confront her fear by forcing herself to hold a snake.
Dr. Randi McCabe, a clinical psychologist and professor of of psychiatry and behavioural neuroscience at McMaster University, is an expert in helping people overcome their fears and phobias. And when Kalli called her up, she said meeting a snake might help Kalli get over her fear, as long as she could remain calm during the experience.
"You don't want to get caught up in the wave of physical and emotional reactions you're having," said Randi. "You're going to have some kind of response, but the intensity of the response will come down if you can just sit with and accept whatever emotions happen."
Kalli went to Marta's Pet Shop in Toronto, where owner John Emmanouil and his daughter Lydia Emmanouil introduced her to a four-foot-long ball python.
Lydia assured Kalli that the python was "the teddy-bear of snakes" and was confident it would help Kalli get over her fear.
After some initial hesitation, and then with some patient encouragement from Lydia and John, Kalli managed to hold the snake.
Kalli says the experience changed the way she is going to talk about fear with her children in the future.
Instead of trying to hide her fear of snakes from her kids, Kalli plans to let them see her work through her fear. "I'm going to try letting them know I'm a little afraid and see what to do to stay calm and get through it," says Kalli. "It's okay for them to see that their mom isn't invincible."