November 2025 Newsletter
Hi All!
Welcome to the November 2025 Hamilton Neurofeedback Newsletter. See below for Neurofeedback for Sport Performance, Client Wins, and Covert Contracts.
1) New Research on Neurofeedback for Sport Performance
Authors note: I'm writing this before Game Seven of the World Series, praying that the Blue Jays have a skilled neurofeedback trainer.
A meta-analysis was recently published on neurofeedback for sport performance which showed encouraging results. A meta-analysis is a research study which reviews and summarizes the results of other studies. Meta-analyses give a good picture of the field as a whole and are usually considered higher quality evidence than individual studies.
Understanding how neurofeedback helps people perform in high-stakes fields has an interesting amount of carryover to understanding how neurofeedback helps people improve mental health symptoms.
Toward that aim, here are a few takeaways from the meta-analysis in Plain-English:
1) Physical performance improved across a range of sports (e.g. golf, darts, archery, dance, soccer, et cetera), “physical performance,” being defined as objective observable muscular outputs such as reaction time, precision, and body balance. Across all studies, physical performance jumped (pun intended) by an average of ~28 percent. This is equivalent to lining up 100 people from worst to best at a sport and moving from number 50 to number 78 without directly training sport performance.
2) There was variability in how much a given individual responded to neurofeedback, with novices improving more than experts. This is equivalent to patients improving more when they have more symptoms. A bigger deficit means a bigger runway for improvement.
3) In addition to improvements in motor learning and application, results likely came from improvements in attention/presence, relaxation, and a sense of ‘effortlessness.’ These translate very clearly into how neurofeedback improves mental health.
Taken overall, these results are exciting not just in the context of sport performance, but as a complementary data-point that neurofeedback works for improving how people feel, work, and perform across the board.
2) Client Wins from October
Here are three quick wins from the last month:
1) After her first Rental Vielight session, one client reported feeling noticeably calm and present. Her exact words were, “I was thinking about all the stuff I had to get done today, now I'm not even worried about it.”
2) A client was nervous before her first neurofeedback session the other day. After her session was over, her whole demeanour changed. She was calm, upbeat, and socially engaged. She said, “I feel like I just meditated,” and gave me a big smile before saying goodbye.
3) A neurofeedback rental client packed in 20+ sessions for her son in just 27 days, using a Minecraft video instead of the standard music. After a month of sessions, he started doing his chores more, being open to changes in routine, and began to get a sense of whether he was late for things (all very impressive for a boy under 10).
It's always such a joy when a client experiences a win like this. Want to read more? Check out our testimonials page for more stories from real clients.
3) Covert Contracts
Think of a time someone put an expectation on you without telling you about it. Maybe they invited you to a party and assumed you’d come. You decline, and suddenly you’re “an awful friend.” It’s like they wrote a contract in their head and forged your signature on it, “Didn’t you read the contract? You’re supposed to say yes!”
These covert contracts aren’t just something other people do to us. We write them for ourselves, for others, and even for the world — and it’s usually the contract, not the trigger, that causes us suffering.
For example:
1) Disappointed that you're not happy on your day off? That’s a broken contract with yourself, “I’ve been looking forward to this — I should feel good.”
2) Let down because someone didn’t help you? Probably a broken contract, “I drop everything for you; you should drop everything for me.”
3) Road rage? Broken contract with the universe, “There was no traffic yesterday; there should be no traffic today too!”
Covert contracts are unconscious. They hide in our psychology, and we don't realize when they're triggered. When we do notice them — without self-judgment — they often seem ridiculous. Try saying out loud, “Everyone should know exactly what I need without me saying it, and if they don’t, they don't care about me.” It's hard to get behind something that sounds so absurd, even if we believe it on some level.
They escalate from reasonable preferences — “I’d prefer people be kind to me.” — into inflexible demands — “People must always be kind to me.” and hardened demands like this set us up for predictable disappointment.
So, first, practice pausing when you’re upset.
Then, make your covert contracts conscious. Ask yourself what rules or assumptions you feel have been broken. Look for must, should, or have to statements (or must not, should not, or cannot statements). When you identify it, say it out loud and ask yourself if it’s logical, true, or helpful.
Finally, restate your demands as preferences. Reminding yourself that you’re not contractually obliged to be happy on your day off — that it’s simply a preference — softens the sting when reality doesn’t cooperate.
Do these things once or twice and the temperature will drop. Do them often and you’ll develop a reflex to counter the covert contracts which cause you suffering.
Imagine walking more lightly through your day – not because the world, others, or your emotions suddenly obey you, but because you stopped carrying invisible, impossible contracts.
The universe is terrible at reading the fine print anyways.
P.S. This post was heavily influenced by the Naval Ravikant quote, "Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” and Albert Ellis’ brand of psychotherapy Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which I’m learning in my psychotherapy practicum. In about five months I’ll be guiding clients through this work one-on-one (instead of scratching my itch by writing about it).