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.
Niloo Nikpour, MS
Niloo Nikpour immigrated to the United States from Iran with her husband and daughter in 1986. She worked as a gas station attendant to finance her master’s degree in economics, eventually becoming a corporate economist for nearly 20 years. Then, after picking up a book of Tao from a bookstore and experiencing a moment of clarity, she resigned from her corporate job. She began practicing yoga and meditation, spent the next 10 years learning from Lao Tsu, Chuang Tsu, Rumi and Carl Jung as her primordial teachers, and began studying TCM and herbal medicine at Emperor’s College. Together with her daughter, Catherine, they envision opening an acupuncture and wellness center for holistic healing, where people can receive love, hope, courage, and the power to heal their body, mind, and spirit.