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.
Christina Checinski, LAc, DACM, Dipl. OM, DA Hom
Dr. Christina Checinski is the president of the Acupuncture Coalition of New Jersey, a nonprofit corporation and new association of acupuncturists working to grow the profession by expanding the scope of practice for licensed acupuncturists in New Jersey. To find out more visit https://acucoalitionnj.org.