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.
Rachel Toomim, AP
Rachel Toomim has been practicing acupuncture for more than 18 years. She educates health care and criminal justice professionals in the use of acupuncture, and serves as a board member for the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association and the AAAOM.