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.
