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.
Naoki Kubota, Dipl. Ac., LAc
Naoki Kubota graduated from Meiji School of Acupuncture & Moxibustion in Osaka, Japan in 1977 and now practices and lives in Asheville, N.C. He has also studied and practices martial arts (hakko-ryu jujutsu, daito-ryu aikijujutsu roppokai and aikido), as well as food therapy (shokuyo).