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.
Amy Mager, DACM, LAc, Dipl. OM (NCCAOM), FABORM
Amy Mager, public policy vice chair of the American Society of Acupuncturists and former chair of the Acupuncture Society of Massachusetts, has worked on legislation advocacy in Massachusetts and nationally.