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.
Justin Flinner, LAc, Dipl. Ac.
Justin Flinner is a Board-Certified and licensed acupuncturist in Washington  D.C. and the CEO of My Metro Medicine. He has been on the faculty of both the Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) and Virginia University of Oriental Medicine (VUOM) lecturing on various topics in Oriental medicine. Justin is a graduate of MUIH with a masters in acupuncture, and he received his Bachelor of Science degree in exercise and rehabilitative sciences from Slippery Rock University.
For more information please visit www.mymetromedicine.com or email him at jflinner@mymetromedicine.com.