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.
Anna Small, AP, Dipl. OM
Anna Small is an Orlando/Seminole/Timucua territory-based acupuncture physician, herbal pharmacologist and reiki master. She has a BA from te University of Pittsburgh and a BS plus MSOM from Florida College of Integrative Medicine. Skincare is a longtime passion of hers and she aims to encourage the beauty in others from the inside out.