ABOUT DEIRDRE McCARTHY
Social Worker • Author • Coach • Educator • Consultant
Deirdre McCarthy is a CORU-registered social worker, children’s author, professional coach, educator and consultant.
She founded Family3 to help people and organisations navigate change through coaching, consultancy and education.
Deirdre is also the creator of The Bród Method®, her registered child-and-family framework for supporting children through separation, loss and other significant changes in their lives.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Deirdre has approximately ten years’ experience as a professionally qualified social worker.
Her professional background includes child protection and welfare social work, family support, foster care, research, higher education, professional learning, programme development and direct work with children and families.
She has supported families experiencing separation, conflict, grief, uncertainty and complex transitions.
Her work has also included developing and delivering education for professionals and organisations working across social work, family support, healthcare, community services and the voluntary sector.
PRACTICAL AND RELATIONAL APPROACH
Deirdre’s approach is warm, reflective and practical.
She believes that meaningful change begins by understanding what is happening, listening carefully to the people involved and identifying what can realistically be influenced.
Across her work, Deirdre values:
• dignity and respect;
• meaningful participation;
• compassion without avoiding accountability;
• professional curiosity;
• evidence-informed practice;
• clear boundaries;
• practical responses that can work in everyday life.
FAMILY3
Deirdre developed Family3 as an umbrella for three connected but distinct areas of work:
COACHING
Creating a reflective space in which professionals can think clearly, build confidence and navigate change.
CONSULTANCY
Helping organisations move from an idea, question or evidence base towards workable programmes, frameworks and resources.
EDUCATION
Translating theory and professional knowledge into engaging and practical learning.
THE BRÓD METHOD®
The Bród Method® developed from Deirdre’s child and family social work and her children’s writing.
She could see how children’s needs and experiences could become lost among adult worry, hurt and decision-making.
The framework was created to help adults return their attention to the child and ask:
What does this child need to feel Happy, Healthy, Safe and Loved?
The Bród Method® now includes children’s stories, workbooks, participation tools, professional resources and educational programmes.
It remains a distinct child-and-family framework within the wider Family3 business.
QUALIFICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Deirdre’s qualifications and professional learning include:
• Bachelor of Social Work (Hons), University College Cork;
• Master of Social Science in Social Policy, University College Cork;
• Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education;
• Level 9 Special Purpose Award in Trauma-Informed Care: Theory and Practice;
• Professional coach training with Aspire, Level 1 completed;
• Motivational Interviewing;
• Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Level 1;
• Children’s Rights studies through the University of Geneva;
• additional learning in relational, trauma-aware and reflective practice.
Deirdre is registered with CORU and maintains continuing professional development appropriate to the work she undertakes.
FROM DEIRDRE
I created Family3 because change rarely arrives in a neat or predictable way.
People need space to make sense of what is happening. Professionals need opportunities to think without immediately having to perform or provide an answer. Organisations need ideas that can survive contact with real practice. Children need adults who genuinely listen.
Family3 offers different routes for those different needs.
Coaching, consultancy, education and The Bród Method® are connected by my professional values, but each has a clear and distinct purpose.
