28 November 2025
Dean Wood has been a Music Therapist at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice for two years and practices in Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and University College London Hospital (UCLH) on the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU).
Dean first heard about Music Therapy ten years ago when he was studying music, he says: "I worked in a concert venue which had rooms for hire and a Music Therapy charity hired a room to set up a Music Therapy clinic. They wanted a musician to be the steward and so I got involved and met some of the families that were using the service. I spent a lot of time with the Music Therapist who helped me understand Music Therapy."
Introduction to Music Therapy
"I didn't think at the time that Music Therapy was what I wanted to do, but it was always lurking in the back of my mind. So, after a couple of career changes and some soul searching, I came back to Music Therapy. I then volunteered for that charity and spent a lot of time in clinics and sessions with families, which was a really great introduction, and I was sure this was what I wanted to do."
Dean goes on to talk about why music is important to him, he says: "I spent a lot of time thinking about what it is about music that is important to me. And found that it was connecting and collaborating with people and being playful and creative. I took what was important for me about music and combined it with doing something that's helpful for other people and can also have a profound impact on people's lives. I also spent some time in therapy, so I wanted to do something that combined both of those elements."
Working at Noah's Ark
Since embarking on his music therapy career Dean has worked at other children’s hospices and so was aware of Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, he says:
"Noah’s Ark is amazing and has incredible impact on the children and families they support. What really attracted me was the specialist nature of the job, it was really encouraging that Noah’s Ark is leading the way in Music Therapy on the NICU."
Dean explains why Music Therapy on the NICU appealed to him and says: "I came upon the work by accident. I was covering a maternity leave, and I just thought the impact was huge and I could see how special the work can be. It’s also because it's an area that is relatively new and exciting, there are not many of us doing this work in the UK."
These specialist therapy workers are in the process of seeking each other out with the aim of creating a network to collaborate and share ideas, he says: "We’d like to ensure that Music Therapists are on the same page so that when families are transferred from one hospital to another they understand what the Music Therapist could support them with and the Music Therapist knows what the family might understand about the service, how they've accessed it and what sort of things they might have done."
Connecting Families Through Sound and Song
Music Therapy transcends the traditional definition of therapy or music and is something we can all benefit from. Dean says: "Recognition and reaction to sound is a universal concept but I think it's really important that it's individualised as everyone will take different things from it. Sound is one of the first ways that we connect with the world around us. Babies’ hearing starts to develop at the 22 to 24-week stage in the womb and by the third trimester, they can recognise familiar voices and react to music."
Dean clarifies that although a relationship with sound is universal, the form that relationship takes is unique to each individual, he says: "The connections with sound we make are because of our individual circumstances and the way our family uses sound, it stays with us and forms part of the how we understand other people and communicate with them, and also how we understand ourselves. It’s a connection that starts in the womb and keeps growing, especially through our teenage years where it forms part of our identity."
Dean goes on to talk about the main benefits of Music Therapy for babies and their families on the NICU, saying: "It’s good that a Music Therapy intervention is non-threatening and generally seen as a positive thing. It’s also different from all the other kinds of interventions that happen on the unit which are often medical. There are benefits for babies, for parents, and for the whole family. Babies benefit from sound and song as it helps them to relax, settle and regulate their bodies, which then protects their brain development. For parents it can support them in a really stressful environment and for families it could be favourite songs, reading stories, poetry, or other things like prayer, hymns or mantras. It’s about finding what meaningful connections the family has to sound and how that can support them to feel more grounded and relaxed so they can be physically and emotionally present with their babies on the unit."
Empowering Parents
Parents with babies on the NICU can suffer a loss of parental identity and feel sidelined as medical professionals step in to care for their baby. Music Therapy can ease these feelings by offering a way for the parents to get to know their baby and to form bonds with them, Dean says: "I want to help parents feel empowered and Music Therapy is something they can have complete control over. I want to help them to connect with their baby and realise that their voice is always their baby’s favourite sound."
Dean says that although the sessions are important for the parents to get used to the techniques, his aim is to get to a point where the families are experimenting between sessions, he says: "The sessions are really lovely experiences but in the long term I want to take myself out of the picture, but I’m there to support them as much or as little as they want."
Dean adds that he doesn’t ever want the parents to feel under pressure to choose music to work with and that he can offer guidance by improvising some simple melodies or lullabies. Dean says: "Sometimes they're not ready for it and that's part of why having Music Therapists is important because you're building a therapeutic relationship with the family to support them through something difficult and it's not always easy."
When the parents do choose the music it can some from a range of sources, Dean says: "It could be something that holds a lot of emotional meaning for them, a lot of emotional weight or even something like the theme tune from a favourite TV show as there is evidence that babies do remember simple melodies from the womb."
How Babies Repond
How babies respond and how they express that response differs between babies, Dean says: "It’s highly individualised, depending on the stage of development the baby is at, their responses can look really different. A pre-term baby’s reactions can look very different to a full-term baby and also babies have their own personality; there isn’t a one size fits all approach. I think it’s important for Music Therapists to have some training in this area on what to look for, for example, looking at the baby’s gaze or their colour, are they red, mottled or a healthy pink? I sometimes narrate what I’m seeing to help parents feel empowered to make those observations themselves."
The Impact of Neonatal Music Therapy
Dean sees first-hand the beneficial impact that Music Therapy has on families, he says: "I really love seeing the beautiful, in the moment things, like parents talking and singing to their baby and the positive impact that has on their baby’s heart rate and oxygen levels." Dean says he also loves hearing feedback from families who are experimenting with Music Therapy at home, he says: ’I also love hearing comments from families who tell me they tried a song and the baby loved it or didn’t love it, I think that beautiful as they’re really trying to get to know their baby."
Dean explains how the introduction of Music Therapy to families on the NICU is made, he says: "It’s unique to each hospital, it’s down to how comfortable their team at introducing Music Therapy and I'm quite happy to work with whatever works best for them. So, at GOSH, for example, it's by referral, whereas in other hospitals, I'll listen out for families showing interest or a willingness to hear more about it. I think it goes back to recognising that all parents and babies on the NICU are in a stressful environment and have experienced some kind of traumatic experience, so they could all benefit from Music Therapy in some way."
Dean also believes that there is a strong case for the benefits of sound and song for staff and health professionals on the NICU, he says: "I get comments from staff, who happen to be close by, that a session with a family was also relaxing for them and helped them feel better in that moment. It's a shame that I can't spend more time actively supporting staff, but if they're around, I absolutely want them to be part of it. We're also starting to think of ways that staff on the NICU might be able to use music independently to support themselves as they do see a lot of difficult things."
Dean believes that Music Therapy should be a standard provision on all NICUs and says: "It has so many benefits in different areas, it supports babies' development, it supports new parents on the unit and help them be parents to their babies. Music Therapy helps parents to feel empowered, and it helps them to still feel connected to the world outside the NICU. I think more units should be brave and adopt Music Therapy as an intervention."
A Bridge to Ongoing Care
Dean talks about his unique position of working for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice across different hospitals, he says: "I think because I’m at different hospitals but also work for Noah’s Ark, it gives them a sense of familiarity and reassurance and it’s been really special where babies have gone on to use Noah's Ark services and I can help with that transition."
Dean says it can be difficult to introduce the idea of a children’s hospice to parents on the NICU, he says: "I always specify that my remit on the NICU isn’t just to see babies who access hospice services, but that I do come from that background. I think sometimes it can come as a shock to parents that someone from a hospice is visiting them, but I reassure them that it’s not necessarily because of a potential referral. But it can work the other way, one family actually flagged me down to ask if I worked for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice. Their baby did go on to use the hospice’s services and I think it was really important to them to have that connection with Noah's Ark beforehand and for some families, that's been the most important thing about Music Therapy, that it's given them an initial connection to Noah's Ark and the idea of palliative care."
You can read more about our Neonatal Music Therapy here.
