Personal Information:    • Name when in high school yearbook:  Anna Billings  • What do people call you now? :   Anna  • Address:  San Anselmo, CA (in San Francisco Bay Area)  • Phone number:    510-524-0833  • Email contact:   www.annabillings.com Current life situation:   Psychotherapist in private practice; creative arts teacher; personal development retreats and workshop leader. Still active, not planning to retire.   Family history (spouse, children, dogs, etc.):   brother Jim lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is an art appraiser, conducts estate sales, writes poetry and essays; sister Helen lives in Petaluma, California, works in food service and has a private practice in hypnotherapy; sister Connie (Weber) lives in Chelsea, Michigan (near Ann Arbor), is a teacher in a private school for gifted children and is very active in creative education development; niece Kiana (Weber) www.kianajuneweber.com, lives in Ann Arbor, plays violin/fiddle in Celtic music group Gaelic Storm and performs worldwide; nephew Tristan (Weber) attends University of Michigan in engineering and physics with a summer job in Colorado studying the moons of Saturn and Jupiter at the National Space Lab, he also plays cello and guitar. Current hobbies and interests:   nature hikes, solo quests in nature, bicycling, Tai Chi, dancing, expressive and visual arts, writing, cooking, photography, conversing, reading, meditating, contemplating, philosophy, process oriented therapies, and constant learning. Claims to fame (books, awards, etc.):   have completed a soon-to-be-published memoir/novel - will keep you posted and let you know when it's released.   Education, employment, career and anything else you'd like to share:   After ELHS, I attended Michigan State University for two years then transferred to University of California at Berkeley in the fall of 1965.  Arrived just in time for the student free speech movement with animated discussions, speeches, and demonstrations everywhere on campus throughout my stay there.  I was catapulted into a whole new world, a very exciting and interesting time.    During college I worked in record stores on famous Telegraph Avenue selling LPs and 45s - remember those?  After graduating from UC Berkeley, I got a job as a social worker and after some years went to graduate school for an advanced degree in clinical psychology.  Later I began a private practice in psychotherapy - my employment and career for the past 35 years.    Since the field of psychology and psychotherapy has grown so much in the past 50 years, it's been a fascinating area that's held my interest throughout.  Once focused on psychoanalysis, behavioral psychology and academics, its scope has expanded to include a wide range of approaches such as neuropsychology (brain), ecopsychology (nature), somatic based (body) therapies, transpersonal psychology (spiritual), art and drama therapies, grief therapies, mindfulness and equine facilitated therapy (using horses to facilitate awareness and healing), to name a few.   All of these approaches have been of great interest to me, engaging my passion for learning, growing and integrating what I learn into my work.  I've studied nature-based healing practices, attended week-long and month-long solo nature quests, trained in drama improvisation, creative process painting, attended contemplative self-inquiry retreats, numerous seminars and workshops, and recently learned the amazing contribution horses bring to the field.  The other perk for me has been the opportunity to experience these approaches directly and thus benefit through personal healing, insights, and development as well as being able to share and teach from what I’ve found helpful.     Greetings to you all!  Wish I could be there to see each of you in person.  So much has happened in each of our lives over the past 50 years since we all walked the halls of ELHS, sat in classes, participated in our various clubs and activities, orchestra, band, choir, attended those exciting games (still remember those screaming double overtime basketball games that we ended up winning).  We had such awesome teams!  And so much has occurred in the world during this half century!  We’ve seen a lot of changes!  We actually lived in a time before computers, cell phone, tablets, Fax machines, and flat-screen color TVs!  And we used typewriters to write our papers or wrote them out by hand. Not to mention all the world history events we have lived through in person!    It’s wonderful to reconnect, to read your profiles on our website and hear a bit about what you’ve been up to.  I look forward to being in touch again and wish you all – who are able to attend – a fabulous time in East Lansing next weekend!