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.
Diane K. Cridennda, LAc
Diane K. Cridennda, LAc graduated from the International Institute of Chinese Medicine in l995 with a Masters of Oriental Medicine degree and trained in Beijing. She is NCCAOM-certified, licensed in Colorado and is a member of Resolve, a national infertility support group. She also sits on the Board for ABORM (Acupuncture Board of Reproductive Medicine). She may be contacted at: www.EastWindsAcupuncture.com or EastWindsTCM@earthlink.net.