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.
Mitchell Lehman, MTOM, LAc
Mitchell Lehman runs a small practice in San Diego, Calif. He serves as Integrative Medicine Director for both Stand Down and Veterans Village of San Diego. He can be contacted at: mitch.instructor@sbcglobal.net or (619) 857-3703.