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.
Julie T. Chen, MD
Dr. Julie T. Chen is board-certified in internal medicine and is also fellowship-trained board-certified in integrative medicine. She has her own medical practice in San Jose, Calif. and also works as the wellness physician for several Silicon Valley-based corporations. She incorporates many healing modalities into her practice including: medical acupuncture, Chinese scalp acupuncture, and clinical hypnotherapy.