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.
Carie Martin-Fulciniti, MSAc
Carie Martin-Fulciniti is an acupuncturist, clinic owner, activist, and doctoral candidate in Seattle, Wash., treating a diverse body of patients from backgrounds of all kinds. Passionate about equity in society and medicine, Carie is starting law school in the fall of 2021 in order to better understand health care policy and better advocate for marginalized communities everywhere, acupuncturists included.