VII Breaths

VII Breaths — Nike Oruh

Nike Oruh · Therapeutic specialist, speaker and facilitator · Edinburgh

What is Seven Breaths?
When things get difficult, I remind myself to breathe.
Elevator, communicator, motivator

What VII Breaths is

A practice built on seven breaths — long enough to choose, short enough to act.

Conversations held with care, compassion and understanding

I work across mental health awareness, men’s health, and race, equality and inclusion — as a keynote speaker, as a facilitator of workshops people actually take part in, and as an advisor to organisations trying to do better by the people in them.

Two decades of practice sit behind it: emotional and sexual health, non-profit work with young people, and clinical counselling across a range of settings. The room decides the pace. The work is the same either way.

See what I offer
Nike Oruh smiling, in a maroon hoodie against a warm orange background

Ways to work

Booked by conferences, universities, health boards and the third sector.

Speaking, workshops, consultancy.

  • One to one support

    Counselling

    My passion lies in helping others to explore their own truth. My counselling approach is ‘person-centred’, in addition - my full-time employment consists of 1-1 short-term (5 sessions) ‘goal focused’ counselling within a University service. I help my clients to explore reasons for any distress, identify emotional difficulties and offer a space to be heard.
    Whilst I have extensive experience within the HE setting, I am happy to work with clients of all ages and backgrounds.
    Placing the person at the ‘centre’ and empowering them to gain a sense of self-awareness is aligned with my personal / work approach to care and support.

    Enquiry about counselling

  • Half day & full day

    Workshops

    Dynamic, interactive sessions people actually take part in. My most requested is ‘Talking About Race & Equality: Exploring Difference and Diversity’, which I have run for universities, counselling services and third sector teams. Others have covered men's mental health, and how language reproduces inequality — and how it is used to challenge it. I build custom EDI sessions to your requirements.

    Enquire about a workshop

  • Conferences & keynotes

    Speaking

    I deliver thought-provoking, informative and engaging keynotes for a wide variety of conference audiences — mental health awareness, men's health, and race, diversity and inclusion. Every talk is built for the audience in the room rather than delivered off the shelf.

    See conferences

  • Advisory & training

    Consultancy

    Programme and resource development, EDI training and development with ZYA, and a steering group seat at We Are Here Scotland. The men's focus groups I facilitate explore what actually stops men asking for help — work that has shaped how counselling and wellbeing services reach male students.

    Talk it through
It felt open, and Nike was very receptive to my reluctance around the question of whiteness, which I had feared would be incendiary.
Workshop participant Talking About Race & Equality

Subjects

Any of these can be a keynote, a workshop or an hour over lunch.

  • Men’s mental health
  • Race, equality and difference
  • Mental health awareness
  • Therapists working with race
  • Workplace wellbeing
  • The student experience in higher education

Every session is tailored to the audience — tell me who is in the room and what you are trying to shift.

Nike Oruh outdoors in dappled sunlight, looking up, in a green rugby shirt

About

Nike Oruh

I am Clinical Lead Counsellor at Edinburgh Napier University, with a Postgraduate Diploma in clinical, counselling and applied psychology from the University of Stirling and a PgDip in Dietetics from Queen Margaret University.

Twenty years in the music industry run alongside it — award-winning performing artist, label owner, promoter. I contributed to the seminal counselling text First Steps in Counselling (5th edition, PCCS Books).

Men’s health, race and equality, and emotional wellbeing are where most of the work comes from — higher education through to the third sector.

Where the name comes from

In the words of the ancients, one should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths.
Hagakure Seven breaths — long enough to choose, short enough to act

Previous work

Selected engagements, most recent first.

Rooms I’ve been in.

  1. Creative Balance — Wellbeing Festival

    Flash talk and wellbeing support — ‘Breathing Life into Wellbeing, Creativity and Community’.

    My talk explored how sound, narrative and therapeutic practice can work together to support emotional literacy, identity and community healing. I spoke honestly about what it takes to hold this together: full-time work, family, and creative ambition, and what courage, authenticity and sustainability can look like in practice.

  2. PCE Europe Symposium

    Chairing presentations and workshops at the 6th PCE Europe Symposium — ‘Growing in Difficult and Challenging Places’.

    Hosted by three partner organisations: the Counselling Unit at the University of Strathclyde, the Association for Person Centred Creative Arts and Person-Centred Therapy Scotland.

  3. Life’s Dirty Little Secrets Podcast: Rethinking Boyhood

    Guest on Secret #59 — with Emily Edlynn, Jennifer Fink and Ana Waddington, exploring the complex realities faced by boys today.

    “We need to reimagine what we are trying to do, with care, with courage and space to breathe.”

  4. Creative Balance — We Are Here Scotland

    Steering group member on a research project into the mental health and wellbeing of Black people and people of colour in the Scottish creative industries, funded by The Baring Foundation and Creative Scotland — the first of an ongoing exploration, run through We Are Here Scotland.

  5. Opening Conversations: Men, Mental Health & Wellbeing

    Panel discussion at Edinburgh Napier University, Craiglockhart Campus — open conversation, shared experience and coping strategies. Breaking down stigma and building something supportive in its place.

  6. Inside Gov: The Student Mental Health Conference

    Speaker, 14 June — ‘Scrutinising the Intersectional Trends of Mental Health and Designing Targeted Interventions for High-Risk Groups.’

  7. Advance HE: Mental Wellbeing in Higher Education

    Speaker, 16 May — ‘Creating a whole university approach to intersectionality and supporting student wellbeing in Higher Education.’

Booked by

Universities, health boards, the third sector.

BACP Registered Member 377246 · MBACP (Accred) · Contributor, First Steps in Counselling, 5th edition, PCCS Books

Find out how I can support you or your organisation.

Whether you’re an individual looking for support, a practitioner, therapist or part of a team. Tell me what you are dealing with and I'll honestly let you know if I'm the right person to support you.

Start a conversation

Get in touch

Say roughly what you are planning and when. Keynote, half-day workshop, focus group, or a longer piece of consultancy — it all starts the same way.