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.
Dimitri Boules, LAc, LMT
Dimitri Boules practices in New York and specializes in Sports Acupuncture and Chronic Pain. He is the author of The Oak Point Method, The A.R.T. of Treating Pain & Creating a Successful Practice, a guide book for teaching acupuncturists how to get outstanding clinical results with their patients by combining functional assessment, contemporary, and traditional acupuncture. For more information visit oakpointmethod.com.