Sylvia Thomas Center

06/01/2026

Upcoming events for June 2026 with the Sylvia Thomas Center for Adoptive and Foster Families! We hope to see you all there❤️

06/01/2026

06/01/2026

This cartoon nails the struggle. ❤️‍🩹
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1JcmbHvk5Z/?mibextid=wwXIfr

05/31/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CsuCYqBLP/?mibextid=wwXIfr

05/30/2026

Come out, browse and shop away. Yard sale at STC.
500 Lithia Pinecrest Rd., Brandon, Fl

05/29/2026

Happy Friday! Last day of school! Here comes summer!! 🤗🥵
https://www.facebook.com/share/1UtxgCc1oP/?mibextid=wwXIfr

ZooTampa at Lowry Park offers free admission to local community workers and active-duty military members this summer. Enjoy the new Florida Waters area.

05/28/2026

❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Many adoptees spend years surviving through adaptation. Hypervigilance. People pleasing. Dissociation. Perfectionism. Emotional shutdown. The body learns how to survive long before the mind understands why.

The hypothalamus plays a major role in this. It helps regulate the nervous system, hormones, stress responses, sleep, heart rate, temperature, and the body’s sense of safety. When an infant experiences separation from their biological mother, the nervous system encodes that loss before language or conscious memory even exists. Over time, chronic stress and early relational trauma can disrupt the body’s ability to function in homeostasis.

Then comes “coming out of the fog.”

For many adoptees, emerging from the fog is not just emotional awareness. It is a full nervous system event. The body suddenly begins processing grief, betrayal, identity disruption, anger, confusion, and loss that may have been compartmentalized for decades. The hypothalamus can become overwhelmed as the body shifts from survival mode into awareness.

This is why so many adoptees experience spirals, exhaustion, insomnia, anxiety, panic, autoimmune flares, shutdown, or emotional flooding during awakening. The body is trying to reorganize itself around truth.

This is also why embodiment practices matter.

Trauma-informed movement, grounding, somatic practices, and pranayama breathing can help regulate the hypothalamus and calm the stress response system. Slow breathing patterns stimulate the vagus nerve, help lower cortisol, regulate heart rate, and send signals of safety back into the body.

Healing trauma is not just cognitive.
It is also physiological.

The body, mind, and soul keep the score.

To join my trauma-informed embodiment classes: lorahgerald.com