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.
Bonnie Koenig, LAc
Bonnie Koenig has been an acupuncturist in Washington State since 1999. After moving into a new office with a chiropractor, she realized they had far more choices in marketing tools than acupuncturists. Bonnie set out to remedy that, offering cards and artwork to acupuncturists which either make people laugh or display the needles in all their beauty in hopes of lessening the fear of needles. For more information, visit her website at: www.shop.bonniekoeniglac.com.