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.
John Weeks
John Weeks has worked in various writing, organizing and executive capacities in integrative health for more than 30 years. His Integrator Blog News & Reports (www.theintegratorblog.com) is widely regarded as the top leadership-oriented resource on the policy and business of integrative health. A prolific organizer, Weeks convened the Integrative Medicine Industry Leadership Summits (2000-2002); directed the National Education Dialogue to Advance Integrated Care (2004-2006); fund-raised the start-up and was on the founding steering committee of the Integrative Health Policy Consortium (2002-; co-founded the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health (and directed from 2007-2015; and was on the founding board of the Academy of Integrative Medicine and Health.