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.
Pam Ferguson, Dipl. ABT (NCCAOM), AOBTA & GSD-CI, LMT
Pamela Ellen Ferguson is semi-retired after years of teaching primarily CEU and advanced ABT courses in the U.S., Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. She was AOMA’s dean emerita of ABT and a former board member of the AOBTA. For previous column articles, visit her online columnist page. She also welcomes comments via email: pamelacudot@gmail.com.