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.
Megan McDrew
Megan McDrew is an admissions recruiter and counselor at the American College of Chinese Medicine in San Francisco. Along with counseling prospective students on Chinese medicine, she volunteers at San Quentin State Prison in support of prisoner advocacy and restorative justice.