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.
Jacky Zhu, MAOM, LAc
Jacky Zhu is a licensed acupuncturist in the state of Oregon, practicing in Portland. He graduated from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine with a Master of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine degree.