I've helped several people that I know get over the fear, or at least get to the point where they could see a snake on TV and not freak out. I even got a friend to the point where she could touch a snake and not get creeped out. And what led to that was she was in her backyard with her daughter who was 3 years old and she saw a snake. She left her daughter and ran in the house. She eventually came back to the door and got her daughter to come to her. The snake which she describe as about 2 feet long and black was nowhere near her or her daughter...... She felt so horrible about it, she was calling herself a bad mother and everything. So I voluntered to help her get over her fear. And it took about 6 months to get her to the point where she could touch a snake. So now if I meet someone who is extremly afraid I'll try to help them have a better understanding of snakes and answer the questions they throw at me...which can cause the fear level to go down some.

One of the things that I've learned from observing my wife's cousin (7 years old at the time), is that Paola only had a fear of snakes when her mother was around. To me she was learning to fear snakes maybe even subconciously from her mother. And it wasn't even anything that her mother said.... it was just her reaction that made Paola fear snakes. And once her mom got kinda use to the fact that we had snakes and stop freaking out when she saw them, Paola was more calm around them even with her mother with her.

Pic of my wifes cousin and one of my Ball Pythons