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.
Joseph (Changqing) Yang, PhD, LAc
Dr. Joseph (Changqing) Yang received his bachelor's degree in TCM and master's degree from Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China, in 1984. In 1998, he earned his PhD degree in neuropsychiatry from Kobe University, Japan. Dr. Yang is the president and founder of the American Institute of Mental Health in Traditional Chinese Medicine (AIMHTCM). He also is the vice director of the mental health committee and the vice director of the psychosomatic committee of the World Federation of TCM. He has a private clinic in West Los Angeles.