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.
Rosa N. Schnyer, DAOM, IFMCP, LAc
Dr. Rosa N. Schnyer, a doctor of Chinese medicine (DAOM) and certified functional medicine practitioner (IFM), is a clinical assistant professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Texas at Austin, and adjunct faculty at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM). Dr. Schnyer is the author of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Depression; A Manual for Practice and Research and Curing Depression with Chinese Medicine, and lectures extensively on mental wellness. She has served as past co-president of the Society for Acupuncture Research and as a research consultant to Harvard Medical School, Stanford University, The Beijing Children’s Hospital and the New England School of Acupuncture. A practitioner for over 35 years, Dr. Schnyer has pioneered innovative research methodologies that better reflect clinical practice. She maintains a private practice in Austin, Texas, where she offers an emergent whole-person approach that integrates Chinese medicine and functional medicine principles and practices to support the management of chronic illness and stress-related disorders.