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.
Deborah Weiss, LAc, RN
Debi Weiss is director of Transition to Health in Oakdale, Minnesota. She has been a nurse for over 37 years and a licensed acupuncturist for 12 years. She is the developer of the Ideal Weight Program, an integration of functional and energy medicine. She can be reached for comment at debi@transitiontohealth.net.