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.
Jennifer Waters, LAc, Dipl. Ac.
Jennifer Waters is an acupuncturist, certified light therapist and certified Arvigo Mayo abdominal therapist. She is a former Acupuncture Today columnist who authored our "Talking With the Masters" column. To learn more about Jennifer, visit JenniferWaters.net; previous articles from her column are available via her online columnist page.