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.
Rita Stanford, DAOM, Dipl Ac, Dipl CH, LAc
Rita F. Stanford, DAOM, Dipl. Ac, Dipl. CH, L. Ac. practices in Boulder, Colorado. She is a 1979 graduate of the Boulder College of Massage Therapy, a 1994 graduate of the Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a 2008 graduate of the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine's doctoral program. Dr. Stanford specializes in BioSET™ Allergy Elimination Technique.