episode 075: Payton Nyquvest

Payton Nyquvest has a way of being that makes others feel truly seen and heard. As the founder & CEO of Numinus, his company aims to empower people to heal through the development and delivery of innovative mental health care and access to safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies. And there is no doubt that Payton is genuine in his calling to help others find healing and wellbeing in their lives. His parents made their way from Manitoba to the west and settled in Deep Cove in North Vancouver. Growing up there was culturally formative for him—living on the border of a First Nations reservation, he was exposed to indigenous culture at a young age. Severe chronic gut pain, however, was a constant companion from the day he was born, and his mother suffered from substance use disorder, eventually becoming sober when Payton was 12. His father was in finance, and Payton found himself in the industry right out of high school. At 30-years-old, he was managing the Vancouver office of one of the biggest independent brokerage firms in the country—yet, he kept on getting more ill, in and out of the hospital several times a week. Feeling exhausted of options, Payton decided to do something different: he booked a flight to Costa Rica and did his first ayahuasca ceremony. After that, he never had a chronic pain symptom again. Coming back home, he wanted to give back to what saved his life and reached out to nonprofits to see what he could do. Soon, he was talking to Health Canada, MAPS and members of Vancouver’s psychedelic community. At the second ayahuasca retreat, he met the renowned Gabor Mate’s daughter and soon after was connected to Gabor, who became a mentor and supporter. All this finally led to starting Numinus, which now has multiple locations in Canada and across the US. It offers traditional mental health services, ketamine-assisted therapy, works with MAPS on their MDMA work, supports a number of psilocybin trials, organizes community experiences such as their recent concert tour with musician East Forest, and more. In this conversation, we explore how his mother grew up as a Mennonite and left the religion, but never lost her faith; her instrumental role in supporting Payton’s own spirituality & his healing; society’s unhealthy compartmentalization between our doing and our being; healing our relationship with plant medicine and nature; psychedelics not being a silver bullet; the genesis story of Numinus; psychedelic accessibility and integration; the ways his team inspires him; the huge cultural shift in the psychedelic landscape right now; being in charge of one’s consciousness; how sound creates a safe space during a psychedelic experience; and much more.