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.
Jeannette Hoyt
Jeannette Hoyt is a newcomer to the acupuncture and oriental medicine fields. She presently serves as the executive director of CCAM Research Partners and is also a Masters of Public Health candidate at Chicago State University, while concluding her AOM studies at Midwest College of Oriental Medicine.