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, LAc
Amy Mager graduated from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1989 and was first licensed to practice acupuncture in CA. Amy has been licensed in MA since 1992. She serves on the AOMSM Board  and serves as its secretary as well as the ASA Board. Amy works on the legislative committee in MA and serves as the Co-Chair of the AOMSM Dry Needling committee as well as serving as a Board Representative to the ASA Dry Needling Committee. She earned her doctorate in acupuncture and Chinese medicine from PCOM in 2018.