Gabriel Constans

Gabriel Constans, Ph.D., continues to discover and share the most effective exercises and insights he has found in his work as a grief, trauma and mental health counselor for over three and a half decades in North America and Africa. His work includes time as a hospice bereavement counselor, social worker, hospital chaplain, responder with the coroner's office for sudden death, mental health consultant and adviser for Santa Cruz Integrative Medicine and Rwandan Orphan's Project and is presently in private practice. He has 12 books published in the U.S. (see below), 5 children and 2 grandchildren. Books by Gabriel Constans related to grief: 12 books published in the U.S. Those related to grief and loss include: Just a Heartbeat Away - When a Mother Dies of AIDS. The Goddess of Cancer. Picking Up the Pieces - A program about violent death for use with middle school students. Good Grief - Love, Loss and Laughter The Skin of Lions - Rwandan Folk Tales Don't Just Sit There, Do Something! Grief's Wake Up Call. Paging Doctor Leff - Pride, Patriotism and Protest.

Articles:

Don’t Let Them Go

Death always seems to come to soon or when we don’t expect it. No matter how long someone has lived or how they’ve died, it is impossible to fully prepare for the moment and the days that follow. Our relationships don’t end with death. We are always connected. Death changes the way in which we can communicate, but our feelings, thoughts, memories and experiences live on. We can say goodbye to a loved one, as we knew them, but we don’t have to say goodbye forever. We can choose to say “hello” to them, as the days pass, how we […]

When Animal Friends Die

They say cats have nine lives. I wish that were true, but the facts contradict such myths. Everything dies, including the felines, dogs and other creatures we choose to care for and have in our lives. Most animals tend to have a shorter life-span than humans, thereby increasing the chances that our beloved friend will stop breathing long before we leave our mortal bodies behind. To add insult to injury is the often callous or dismissive attitude and comments of others when we’ve lost a non-human friend. People don’t always understand the emotional impact losing a pet can have. They […]

Ten Active Ways to Live With Loss

Mourning the loss of someone you love, adore, respect, hate, despise or have any combination of feelings towards takes time and attention, but you don’t have to just sit there and take it. Sometimes grief can cause such lethargy and exhaustion that it may seem impossible to “do” anything other than get through the day. The irony is that once you get moving, emoting or acting it usually increases your motivation, energy and health. Once you have taken the time to acknowledge your loss (whatever it may be), feel its full impact and the changes it is causing in your […]

Why One Person’s Grief Affects All of Us

If anyone believes that losses experienced by others is not their concern, I’d ask them to think again. The cost, both individually and collectively, to our society of those experiencing complications from mourning is astronomical and all encompassing. Complex or complicated mourning can be the result of multiple deaths, the death of a child, death from suicide, accident, homicide, unexpected loss and/or pre-existing conditions (before the death occurred) of alcoholism, abuse or mental illness. It is estimated that these difficult circumstances affect one out of every three mourners in the United States. There are approximately 2 million deaths per year […]

Bringing Daniel Back to Life

“Stop the train! I want to get off!” Jean shouted. Jean’s son of forty-three years had died in a restaurant. He choked to death. He had survived a life of infinite struggle as he lived with Down’s Syndrome and the isolation, stigma and cultural alienation he and his family had experienced daily. “He was such a good soul,” Jean continued, as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Of all the things to happen, why did it have to happen to him?” Her son Daniel had become increasingly independent as he aged and was living in a group home in the Bay […]

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