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.
Stephanie Schneider
Stephanie Schneider is a licensed acupuncturist in California and New York. She recently completed her doctoral studies in Ayurvedic Medicine at AUCM in Los Angeles, Calif.. She studied in China and Vietnam and will be doing post-doctoral studies in India. She maintains a private practice in Calabasas, Calif. and Tuxedo Park, N.Y.