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.
Cynthia Neipris, LAc
Cynthia Neipris is the director of outreach and community education for Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York, and serves on the advisory board of Acupuncturists Without Borders. She can be reached at cneipris@pacificcollege.edu.