Payton Nyquvest co-founded Numinus as a solution to a lifetime of severe chronic pain. After extended stints in hospitals–and out of options for a permanent remedy, the Vancouver-based entrepreneur turned to psychedelics to alleviate his suffering.
“I’d never had a psychedelic experience before,” Payton Nyquvest reflects, looking back on his first foray into the world of hallucinogenic therapy. “I come from a family that suffered with substance abuse, so I was always the anti-recreational drug person, but turned to psychedelics as a last-ditch attempt at eliminating the pain.”
One week of treatment in 2017 was all it took for him to be pain-free after a lifetime of agony. “Not to paint the picture of a panacea, but one week with psychedelics resulted in me not having any chronic pain symptoms again.”
While Nyquvest’s anchor point was rooted in his childhood passion for mental health and spirituality after being born with severe chronic pain, his pathway took place when he was sitting in a Vancouver hospital bed; hurting, fed up, and willing to try anything if it meant he could end the physical torture. As soon as he was discharged he headed to South America to partake in four Ayahuasca ceremonies. “After researching psychedelics for a year and a half, I told my partner (now wife) to trust me,” he remembers. “I booked my flights while I was still in the hospital, and went through those ceremonies. That was my first psychedelic experience.”
Co-founding Numinus, a holistic company that empowers people to heal through innovative mental health care and access to psychedelic-assisted therapies, Nyquvest–of partly-Swedish background–decided to give back to others in similar predicaments. “I knew my chronic pain had been alleviated after, but also knew the structure that was holding that pain was still within me,” he points out. “There was this very clear message that it was really on me to now take care of myself … and others.”
Starting the first of many North American locations in his hometown of Vancouver, Nyquvest’s chance encounter with MAPS founder Rick Doblin at a TED event paved the way for an infrastructure to be built in the psychedelic therapy field; not just providing an innovative experience for participants, but also a container that can hold said experiences with supportive practices.
“I founded Numinus about seven years ago, and what’s interesting today is that we were there at the very beginning of the formation of it becoming an “industry,” Nyquvest explains. “Since then, there’s been $2.9 billion invested in psychedelic-related organizations.”
But while Numinus was born out of Nyquvest’s longing for a permanent alleviation of physical illness, it’s his desire to create an empowered community of people who can heal through the development and delivery of innovative mental health care, that set Numinus apart.
“While psychedelics are a really powerful tool, it was the other mental health resources I had around me {while I was going through my treatment} that really made it effective.”
According to their website, “Numinus exists to help the world heal, starting with addressing the global crisis in mental health by harnessing the power and promise of psychedelic medicine.”
“We’ve also rooted it in the care and services that need to be around it to hold those experiences accountable,” he says. This is so the participant can reap the full benefits of the assisted therapy. While the scaling of the business is vital to reducing the epidemic levels of mental health, Nyquvest insists the quality of the client cannot be sacrificed.
Nyquvest is most proud of his own personal journey that he’s embarked upon and insists that Numinus isn’t simply a business venture for him. “I’m not just a CEO in space,” he emphasizes. “I’ve taken countless hours of therapist training and currently work with indigenous groups to deeply understand the alternative therapy space. So while I’m an executive in the space, I’ve experienced it from the practitioner side as well.”
Payton Nyquvest is the Co-founder, Chair & Executive Officer of Numinus, who specializes in both traditional and alternative mental health treatments like psychedelic therapy.
With over $2.9B already invested in psychedelic-related organizations across North America, Nyquvest’s company Numinus adds to the already-growing holistic community with locations all across the U.S., including three in Canada: Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.
To immerse yourself in a transcendental experience that provides an alternative treatment option to living a pain-free life, visit Numinus.
