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.
Galina Roofener, AP, LAc Dipl. Ac., Dipl. CH
Galina Roofener is the president of the Florida State Oriental Medicine Association (FSOMA). She graduated from East West College of Natural Medicine and currently works at the Cleveland Clinic as an acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist.