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.
Antoinette Barbour, DC, LAc, Dipl. OM
Dr. Antoinette P. Barbour is a licensed acupuncturist and doctor of chiropractic. She graduated from Southern California University of Health Sciences in 2018 (Doctor of Chiropractic degree) and Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Master of Science in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine) in 2020.