Listening Sessions with Mothers After Corona Pandemic
Part 1

Currently I am with Jersey Innovative services where I meet kids under the age of 23. I go to these kids home and meet their mothers or caregivers. I noticed that these families especially mothers were affected by COVID-19. Some were affected in positive but most in negative way. Therefore, I decided to conduct my listening session with these mothers. I asked my Field supervisor before asking these participants. I decided to do half hour interview but after my first interview I noticed that they need to be heard, so I decided to do an hour-long interview. All these women live in Monmouth County, and they are all getting services for their kids from Jersey Innovative Services.
My participants would be all using their first and last initials. For example, P.T mentioned that that back in 2018-2019 she had chronic spending habits which led her to a debt of $20,000 due to which she was not able to make even minimum monthly payments. Because of the lockdown she had time to sit down and look at her situation.
After I scheduled the interviews, I prepared myself for this interview. First, I wrote my questions down, secondly, I made myself more familiar with COVID-19 symptoms, treatments, CDC vaccine guidelines, and high-risk settings. I made few handouts to give these mothers. I also learned more about the role of drugs in the treatment of patients with ovid-19.
I start out by saying the following:
Good evening, my name is Naveeka Kausar, I will be the facilitator for todays’ listening session. I am first year MSW student from Monmouth University and with Jersey Innovative services as a Behavioral Assistant/Mentor. Here is a list of questions that I will be asking my participants.
Question 1: How are you?
Question 2: What brought you here?
Question 3: How was your experience with the pandemic?
Question 4: What helped you the most to cope during this time?
Question 5: Can you please describe your support system?
Question 6: Who is in your support system?
Question 7: How are your family members dealing with this pandemic?
Question 8: What keeps you up at night?
Question 9: Why and how do you think a counselor can help you?
Question 10: How did this time off make you reflect on your professional goals?
Question 11: How did it influence your life?
Question 12: After your time of reflection of your life how did you plan to move-on?
How will I prepare myself before the interview?
I would reach fifteen minutes early to my client’s house. I would sit in the car and talk to myself loud about the questions I am going to ask. I would tell myself to be not impulsive and not interrupt my client.