Don't look back in anger: learning from my mistakes with Mark and his family.

The article offers a reflective account of work with Mark and his family. The work concerned a teenage boy who had presented with elective mutism; when this ameliorated he presented later with obsessive compulsive disorder. In the therapy there was a recurrent pattern of disappointment for all concerned that positive change, which at times looked so likely, did not materialize. A description of the work is given, interspersed with reflections about my feelings at the time, and current thoughts and ideas about what might have gone wrong and why. Reflections on the process of writing this piece and the potential benefits of such an invitation to reveal our 'failures' are also offered.