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.
Damian McCleod, LAc
Damian McCleod received his master of science from PCOM (New York) in 2014, and is an active member of the Acupuncture Society of New York. He runs a private practice and a community acupuncture program, where he focuses on musculoskeletal disorders.