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Allison Holker on Mental Health Advocacy and Memoir This Far

Allison Holker

Allison Holker’s recent public work has increasingly centered on mental health advocacy, authorship, family communication, and sharing her experience of grief and recovery. After a major family loss in 2022, she began speaking more openly about seeking support, accepting help, parenting through difficult circumstances, and creating a new sense of purpose.

That shift became especially visible through her memoir This Far: My Story of Love, Loss, and Embracing the Light, her work with CorePower Yoga during Mental Health Awareness Month, public support for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and later speaking engagements focused on behavioral health. She has also been clear that her advocacy comes from lived experience rather than professional mental health training.

Quick Facts

FieldDetails
NameAllison Holker
Public focusMental health advocacy, authorship, public speaking, and family-focused conversations
MemoirThis Far: My Story of Love, Loss, and Embracing the Light
Mental health workServed as CorePower Yoga’s Mental Health Ambassador
NAMI connectionSupported a CorePower fundraising initiative benefiting the National Alliance on Mental Illness
FoundationIdentified by her publisher and professional representatives as the founder of the Move With Kindness Foundation
Podcast projectCo-hosted Between Us with Allison and Weslie
Public speakingFeatured at the Reflections of Hope behavioral health event organized by Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services

How Her Public Purpose Changed After 2022

Holker has described the period after her family’s loss in December 2022 as one that changed the way she thought about her purpose. In a first-person account published by Glamour in February 2024, she said her sense of purpose had become deeper and that speaking openly could become another way of helping people.

Part of that change involved learning to accept support herself. Holker said she had not previously been accustomed to asking others for help. As she dealt with grief and focused on her family, she began allowing relatives and other people around her to provide both practical and emotional support.

She later told PEOPLE that she and her children began intensive therapy in 2023. Her account focused not only on helping her children but also on recognizing that she needed support for her own recovery.

Those experiences became closely connected to the subjects she later discussed publicly: grief, therapy, emotional openness, asking for help, and the importance of using available mental health resources.

This Far and Her Move Into Authorship

Holker expanded that public conversation with This Far: My Story of Love, Loss, and Embracing the Light. Harper Select announced the memoir in September 2024, and it was published on February 4, 2025.

The book gave her more space to discuss grief, family, resilience, rebuilding, and mental health. Before publication, she told PEOPLE she wanted to share her experience in a way that could encourage people struggling to seek support rather than face difficult periods alone.

She also placed an important limit around that role. Holker explicitly said she is not a therapist and did not present the memoir as a replacement for professional care. Instead, she has said she can speak from personal experience and encourage people to find appropriate help.

That distinction has remained central to how she discusses mental health. Her public work is grounded in what she says she experienced personally, rather than in claims of clinical expertise.

Mental Health Advocacy Through CorePower and NAMI

Mental health advocacy became a formal part of Holker’s public work in May 2024, when CorePower Yoga identified her as its Mental Health Ambassador during Mental Health Awareness Month.

As part of the campaign, she participated in a direct Q&A about mental well-being, family communication, emotional openness, and why she had decided to speak more publicly about these subjects.

CorePower also organized a fundraising initiative from May 6 through May 15, 2024 in support of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which Holker had selected as the beneficiary. During the same conversation, she said she had worked with a local NAMI program at a Boys & Girls Club in Los Angeles.

Harper Select has also identified her as a NAMI ambassador. Her connection with the organization is supported by her own account of working with a local program and by CorePower’s 2024 fundraising campaign. Holker’s publisher and professional representatives also identify her as the founder of the Move With Kindness Foundation, which is associated with mental health awareness. Earlier Los Angeles Times reporting described the foundation as having been launched by Boss’s family, so the available accounts do not support describing Holker as its sole founder.

Her advocacy has generally emphasized practical themes rather than professional advice: recognizing when help is needed, talking honestly about difficult emotions, and using established mental health resources.

The Habits and Family Values She Has Discussed Publicly

Holker has shared several specific habits that she said helped provide stability during difficult periods. In her Glamour account, she described maintaining structured mornings that included personal time, affirmations, and planning the day ahead.

She said these routines had been part of her life for a long time and became particularly valuable when other parts of life felt uncertain. Rather than presenting them as treatment, she described them as personal practices that helped create structure.

Her approach to family communication also changed. In the 2024 CorePower interview, Holker said she and her children had become more willing to have difficult conversations instead of avoiding uncomfortable emotions.

She also described becoming more comfortable letting her children see her vulnerability. In her view, showing emotion made it easier for them to speak honestly about what they were feeling.

She has also spoken publicly about changing some of her parenting choices as she gained experience. In a 2025 conversation with her daughter Weslie, she acknowledged that she had once been overly rigid about food choices and said her approach with her younger children had become more balanced.

Between Us Expanded Her Family and Mental Health Conversations

In 2025, Holker and her daughter Weslie continued discussing family communication through Between Us with Allison and Weslie, a series created by Podcast Nation.

The conversations drew on their own experiences while addressing parenting, grief, mental health, self-discovery, social pressures, personal growth, and family communication.

The season includes 13 episodes, with the finale released on July 2, 2025. That final conversation returned to themes that had appeared throughout the series, including honest communication, curiosity, and making an effort to understand one another.

The 13-episode project extended Holker’s public conversations into parenting, emotional growth, and family relationships.

Her Mental Health Work Continued Into 2026

Holker’s public mental health work continued after the release of This Far and the completion of the first listed season of Between Us.

On February 11, 2026, she was the featured speaker at the Reflections of Hope luncheon organized by Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services.

The event supported behavioral health services and mental health awareness. The organization formally listed Holker as its featured speaker, placing her personal experience and advocacy within a broader event focused on access to behavioral health support.

The appearance also extended her advocacy beyond the initial period surrounding her memoir. By 2026, mental health had remained a recurring part of her public speaking and professional projects rather than a subject discussed only during the book’s launch.

Allison Holker’s Current Public Focus

By February 2026, Holker had built a documented body of public work around sharing lived experience and encouraging greater openness about mental health. Her memoir, organizational partnerships, family-focused conversations, and behavioral-health speaking appearances all contribute to that record.

In her own interviews, she has consistently emphasized seeking appropriate support and has clearly stated that her role is based on personal experience rather than clinical expertise.

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