John Mondanaro PhD, MT-BC, LCAT, CCLS is the Director of Expressive Arts Therapy for the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine in the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital. John brings over 20 years of healthcare experience, treating patients and families across the lifespan from the NICU through geriatrics and end-of-life. Earning his Ph.D. and M.A. in Music Therapy at New York University, and B.A. in Art from Saint Ambrose University, John is licensed as a creative arts therapist in New York and maintains dual certification in Music Therapy and Child Life practice. He has written and presented extensively
on the arts in healthcare and is a co-editor of the books, Music, and Medicine: Integrative Models in the Treatment of Pain and Covid Chronicles: Music Therapy in Pandemic Times. As a music psychotherapist specializing in palliative care through the lifespan, John’s training and experience across the expressive arts has culminated in a unique clinical approach that is humanistic to the core in its valuing of body, mind, and spirit integration.
Selected Publications
- Mondanaro, J. (2022). Care, compassion, & controversy: Supporting children in a Covid-19 vaccine pod through music therapy & child life. Music & Medicine, 14(3), 158-164.
- Mondanaro, J. (2021). Resourcing popular music for relevant themes in music therapy with perinatal loss. Music Therapy Perspectives, 39(2), 116-125.
- Mondanaro, J. & Tsiris, G. (2021). Music therapy and relationship completion in palliative care: Themes and orientations for contemporary education. In A. Clements-Cortes & J. Yip (eds.). Relationship completion in palliative care music therapy (Chapter 8, pp.71-95). New Braunfels, TX: Barcelona Publishers.
- Mondanaro, J. F., Sara, G. A., Thachil, R., Pranjić, M., Rossetti, A., EunHye Sim, G., Canga, B., Harrison, I. B., & Loewy, J. V. (2020). The Effects of Clinical Music Therapy on Resiliency in Adults Undergoing Infusion: A Randomized, Controlled Trial. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, S0885-3924(20)30860-5. Advanced online publication.
- Mondanaro, J. (2019). Challenges to music therapy programming: A case study of innovation, burden, and resilience in United States hospitals. Music and Medicine 11 (2), 115-126.
- Mondanaro, J., Homel, P., Lonner, B., Lichtensztejn, M., Shepp, J., & Loewy, J. (2017). Music therapy increases comfort and reduces pain in patients recovering from spine surgery. American Journal of Orthopedics, 46(1), E13-E22
- Mondanaro, J. (2016). Multicultural medical music psychotherapy in affirming identity to facilitate optimal coping during hospitalization. Music Therapy Perspectives 34(2), 154-160.
- Mondanaro, J., Ettenberger, M., & Park, L. (2016). Mars rising: Music therapy and the increasing presence of fathers in the NICU. Music and Medicine.8 (3), 95-107.
- Mondanaro, J. & Loewy, J. V. (2016). Music therapy with adolescents in medical settings. In J. Edwards (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of music therapy (pp.89-111). Oxford: Oxford Press.
- Mondanaro, J. (2013). Surgical and procedural support for children. In J. Bradt (Ed.). Guidelines for music therapy practice in pediatrics (pp. 205-251). Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.
- Mondanaro, J. (2008). Music therapy in the psychosocial care of pediatric patients with epilepsy. Music Therapy Perspectives, 26(2),102-109. Silver Spring, MD: AMTA.