A student stands over a patient, needle poised. They have a “perfect” prescription: a textbook combination of points harvested from a lecture slide on chronic lower back pain. But as the needle meets the skin, the student hesitates - the symptom of a quiet habit that has taken hold of our profession. We routinely say we “prescribe” points. It sounds efficient. It echoes the authority of biomedical culture and fits neatly into the insurance field. But vocabulary is never neutral; repeated long enough, it dictates behavior.
Abbye Silverstein, LAc
Abbye Silverstein, LAc, is a Colorado licensed acupuncturist practicing for more than 15 years. For eight years she was an associate professor and clinical supervisor at Southwest Acupuncture in Boulder, teaching the integration of Five Element Acupuncture and Eight Principle Theory (TCM). She is completing her first book, a manual integrating Five Element and TCM theories. You can contact her at abbye.silverstein@gmail.com.