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.
Chase G. Waters, MSc, LAc, DAOM Fellow
Chase G. Waters is an acupuncturist and herbalist practicing in Santa Cruz and Palo Alto, California. He has a master’s in TCM with a specialization in Classical Chinese Medicine and is currently pursuing his doctorate in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine at FBU. In addition to being an instructor of Acupuncture at FBU, he is an Integrative Medicine resident at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif. Chase’s clinical focus is internal medicine, neuropsychology, and autoimmune disorders.