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.
Carly Druck, LAc
Carly Druck is a classical Chinese acupuncturist who studied under Jeffry Yuen. She attained a Master of Science in Acupuncture from the Swedish Institute of Health Services in 2009, and practices in Edison, N.J. She welcomes feedback to this article via email at CDhealing@gmail.com.