Will Morris, in Acupuncture Today, writes — ” ‘Word-tricksters’ – as I like to call them – change language in order to gain personal advantage.”
I haven’t received much input on my questions about nomenclature, but in my conversations with practitioners around the country I haven’t found any agreement or clarity about where acupuncture begins or ends.
I do have a question for Dr. Morris and the others who have been so insistent that the other professions should use “acupuncture” rather than “dry needling” or any other term. Would folks be happy with an outcome in which all professions agreed to use the term acupuncture for anything that used a filiform needle, but in which the LAc community still had no say in the regulations, education requirements, and scope for those professions?
The acupuncture community would not see that as a win. I believe that the people arguing for the global use of the term acupuncture are doing so because they think it will give them control over the procedure — that is, to gain personal advantage. Doesn’t that make us the Word Tricksters?
In the meantime, based on youtube videos and discussions on various list serves, my colleagues are very interested in being able to draw distinctions between how they use needles and how the PT’s and others use needles. Wouldn’t insisting on the use of the term “Dry Needling” help?