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.
Leslie Graham, MS, DC, LAc
Dr. Leslie Graham is in private practice in Clear Lake, Texas and is an adjunct faculty member at the American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Houston. She may be contacted at either www.tcmspecialists.com or www.wonhoploongchuan.com.