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.
Scott Herbster, LAc, Dipl. OM
Scott Herbster graduated with a bachelor's degree in Chinese medicine from China Medical University in Taiwan. He has worked as a clinical practitioner for more than 20 years and authored the three-volume book series Integrative Chinese Herbal Therapy (available on Amazon.com).