Vironika Wilde is a poet, spoken word artist, award-winning author, nomad, feminist, cat fanatic, and activist. More than a poetry book, Love and Gaslight is a story. Divided into five chapters, it sparks with one woman's decision to leave an unhappy relationship. Her choice begins a painful unraveling. Poem by poem, she searches for lost innocence and unpalatable truth. Veronika is also a sexual assault survivor reclaiming her body. She is an immigrant climbing into the home-sized hole in her heart. She is an adult comforting her inner child. She is a woman questioning the social conditioning that governs her freedom. Love and Gaslight is raw, political, and transgressive. It's edgy, feminist, and relevant. Most importantly, it's honest. You will feel it. Whether it makes you feel sad, glad, or attacked, it will also make you feel brave enough to speak your truth. Show Notes: * Poetry can reveal truth and heal trauma. Vironika has been writing poetry since she was a child and after publishing two self-help books, she decided to dive more deeply into her poetry. * As a woman, your healing process comes up for you each month when you have your period. So once a month, when you're on the progesterone part of your cycle, it comes back and it gives you an opportunity to process whatever it is that hasn't been processed. * Toxic relationships are crazy making. * Vironika realized that she and her partner were recreating childhood traumas with each other. He was casting her into this role of his mother, and she was casting him into this role of her father, which tends to repeat itself over and over again until you learn to heal your inner child. * Vironika came from the former Soviet Union to Canada with her parents as immigrants. * Vironika had to learn to empty herself in her friendships with others in ways that would not re-traumatize herself. * It’s really important to find a friend that can hold space for you. * In the former Soviet Union there is a big culture of repression, so much so that many people have throat issues and thyroid issues that have to do with voice suppression. * Sometimes we are doing the right thing but with the wrong person. * Love and Gaslight is a collection of poems that share the process of healing.