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Sara Kavanaugh: From Health Anxiety to Empowerment—Transforming Hereditary Cancer Risk into Healing

Walking the Genetic Line

Release Date: 01/15/2026

Solo Episode: Living with Hereditary Cancer and Risk in a Loud World show art Solo Episode: Living with Hereditary Cancer and Risk in a Loud World

Walking the Genetic Line

Host: Sara Champie, LCSW Theme: Navigating medical vulnerability, global instability, and nervous system overwhelm during hereditary cancer risk and treatment. Episode summary What happens when your body is healing, your life is medically uncertain, and the world around you feels like it’s unraveling? In this solo episode, therapist Sara Champie explores a reality many people navigating hereditary cancer risk quietly experience: the nervous system strain of managing personal medical vulnerability while absorbing the constant noise of global crisis. When surgery, treatment, or high-stakes...

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Walking the Genetic Line

Guest: Katie McMurray Theme: BRCA1, sisterhood, developmental trauma, and choosing preventative surgery in young adulthood Episode summary When Katie was 17, she lost her mother to breast cancer. Years later, genetic testing confirmed what she had long suspected: she carries a BRCA1 mutation. In this episode, Katie and Sara Champie explore what happens when grief resurfaces through genetic testing — how identity shifts, how fear and agency intertwine, and how the loss of a parent shapes medical decision-making. At 25, during the height of COVID, Katie chose preventative mastectomy surgery....

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Walking the Genetic Line

Guest: Sara Kavanaugh Theme: Living as a Previvor—Agency, Advocacy, and Reframing Anxiety After Genetic Testing Episode summary When Sara Kavanaugh learned she carried mutations in her MSH6 (Lynch syndrome) and Check2 genes, she moved from decades of health anxiety—and ambiguous uncertainty—to a new sense of empowerment and structure. In this dialogue with psychotherapist and fellow traveler Sara Champie, Sara shares how learning her genetic status fundamentally changed her identity, led her to fierce self-advocacy, and inspired her to create the Positive Gene Podcast—a resource and...

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Guest: Sara Kourouma Theme: Loss, agency, and community—the emotional journey of living with BRCA2 Episode summary When Sara Kourouma discovered she carried the BRCA2 mutation as a young adult—after losing her mother to breast cancer at age 10—she was thrust into a landscape defined by uncertainty, risk, and the weight of generational loss. In this episode, Sara Champie sits down with Sara Kourouma, a clinical social worker serving New York and Texas, to explore how privilege, access, grief, and human connection have shaped her journey through surveillance, multiple prophylactic...

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Walking the Genetic Line

Episode Summary When Beth Martinetti—Pilates instructor, mother of three, and lifelong student of her own body—discovered multiple genetic mutations at 45, it was the latest chapter in a lifetime shaped by both visible and invisible challenges. Beth shares her journey from adolescent injury and Ehlers-Danlos diagnosis, through complicated pregnancies, to a midlife cascade: mysterious symptoms, pivotal encounters with validating doctors, and ultimately, the discovery that she carries BRCA1, CHEK2, and a variant in BARD1. Still in the thick of surgical recovery, Beth invites us into her...

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Guest: Dr. Corinne Menn Theme: Claiming agency in hereditary cancer risk, surgical menopause, and a new era of HRT care Episode summary When Dr. Corinne Menn—board certified OB/GYN, Menopause Society certified practitioner, 23+ year breast cancer survivor, and BRCA2 carrier—joins us, she brings unparalleled lived and clinical expertise to walking the genetic line. In this conversation, Dr. Corinne Menn shares her deeply personal journey: breast cancer at 28, the loss of her mother to ovarian cancer, and the years navigating her own genetic risk and premature menopause. Together, we...

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Walking the Genetic Line

Guest: Martha Kaiser Theme: Walking with CDKN2A, Ancestral Discovery, and Agency in Rare Genetic Mutations Episode Summary When Martha Kaiser discovered she carries the rare CDKN2A gene mutation—known for elevating risks of melanoma and pancreatic cancer—her journey shifted from uncertainty, loss, and family trauma to active agency and deep exploration. In this conversation, she shares not only the medical dimensions of living with a lesser-known mutation, but how intergenerational silence, gut intuition, and the drive to protect her children led her to become both a patient advocate and a...

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Walking the Genetic Line

🧬 Episode Summary In this solo episode, host Sara Champie, LCSW, explores one of the most common phrases in medicine and psychology—evidence-based care—and what it really means when we apply it to lived human experience. Sara walks us through the two definitions that often get conflated: evidence-based research, which measures outcomes in controlled studies, and evidence-based practice, which integrates science, clinical wisdom, and a client’s unique values and culture. She then bridges these frameworks through the lens of hereditary cancer risk, showing how the most profound healing...

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Walking the Genetic Line

Guest: Katherine Lewandowski Theme: Choosing care, surviving change, and finding a stronger self after prophylactic surgery Episode summary When Katherine learned at 43 that she carried BRCA2—shortly after her father’s metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis—she moved from shock and shame to decisive action. In this conversation, she shares how grief, meticulous research, and a values-aligned care team led her through prophylactic bilateral mastectomy with DIEP flap reconstruction and surgical menopause—and why she now feels more like herself: stronger, clearer, and more alive. We...

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Guest: Sara Kavanaugh
Theme: Living as a Previvor—Agency, Advocacy, and Reframing Anxiety After Genetic Testing

Episode summary
When Sara Kavanaugh learned she carried mutations in her MSH6 (Lynch syndrome) and Check2 genes, she moved from decades of health anxiety—and ambiguous uncertainty—to a new sense of empowerment and structure. In this dialogue with psychotherapist and fellow traveler Sara Champie, Sara shares how learning her genetic status fundamentally changed her identity, led her to fierce self-advocacy, and inspired her to create the Positive Gene Podcast—a resource and anchor for others navigating hereditary cancer risk.

We cover

  • The personal journey: From ingrained health anxiety to seeing genetic knowledge as a “gift” that brings clarity, agency, and actionable plans.

  • What it means to be a “previvor”: Lived reality, screening protocols, and the invisible challenges of those at elevated risk—but without a cancer diagnosis.

  • Parenting at midlife: Navigating genetic risk with two young children and the hopes/fears for future generations.

  • Building self-advocacy in the medical system: How to develop real relationships with providers, advocate when facing dismissive care, and bridge gaps in awareness (including doctors who don’t know Lynch syndrome!).

  • The role of intuition and anxiety: Reframing lifelong anxiety toward health into self-protection and intuition, rather than pathology.

  • Creating the Positive Gene Podcast: Choosing curiosity, connection, and education as vehicles for healing and collective empowerment.

  • Identity and healing: Drawing on moments from childhood (challenging authority, resisting labels like “flighty”) to claim agency and redefine self-worth after a life-changing diagnosis.

Highlights & takeaways

  • “Knowledge is power.” For many, genetic test results shift fear into structure, agency, and meaningful decision-making.

  • Previvors often live unseen—managing complicated protocols, moving between providers, advocating for themselves, and carrying risk that isn’t always visible or understood.

  • The relationship with your healthcare provider matters. Connection and trust can transform screenings and mitigate isolation.

  • Healing is possible even in uncertainty: You can use your experience for growth, connection, and to model integrity and resilience for loved ones.

  • Advocacy starts early—standing up to being underestimated (even as a child) can inform your agency as an adult facing difficult realities.

Content note
This episode discusses cancer risk, genetic mutations, parenting with uncertainty, health anxiety, identity shifts, and emotional processing after major life events.

Resources mentioned

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Find Sara Champie on IG @FaceTheRiskTogether and www.sarachampielcsw.com to get free resources + access to 1:1 and group support.


You already speak this language—come walk the genetic line with us.