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.
Diana Fried, MAc, MA, Dipl. Ac.
Diana Fried is a dedicated practitioner of emotional and trauma healing. In 2005, she founded Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) to provide community acupuncture healing in disaster-stricken and underserved areas. Her work has taken her to locations such as the U.S., Haiti, Nepal, Mongolia, Ecuador, Israel and Palestine, and Mexico. At AWB she started the World Healing Exchange, the Community Clinic Service Program, and the Disaster Relief Program, along with training in Healing Community Trauma, through which thousands of people around the world have been trained to volunteer locally and globally to help those in need.