I have.  I've had doctors threaten me, write on me, claim to be a witch and generally try their best to bend me to their will.  All in the name of healing me.  Hell, turn on the tv and you can see the very popular "House" doing the same for his patients.  No artifice is too extreme if it heals, apparently.

Whatever happened to self-determination?  Whatever happened to personal freedom and conscious choice? 

Just last night a yoga "master" confronted my "unhappiness" with my life.  Fortunately she had the answer for me (surprise!), and the required extra sessions were only going to cost me a thousand dollars.  And this was someone who spent a couple of hours with me and twenty or thirty other people.  Someone I had never met before.  Of course she came highly recommended, but come on.  As doctor Phil would say, do I have "stupid" written across my forehead?

I am a fully functioning adult.  Some would even say highly functioning.  So I don't like being manipulated by healers of any stripe, whether traditional western medical or alternative anything. 

In fact it's a deal-breaker for me. 

I don't like being coerced whether it's supposedly for my own good or not.  And who's to say that it is good for me?  When my gyn threatened me that I'd probably be turning up pregnant in 3 months because I wanted to change my method of birth control to one that was non-pharmaceutical -  If I had gone along with him rather than ending the relationship - would that have been good for me?  I didn't get pregnant - because I'm a responsible adult.  And now I am glad I went off hormones when I did, and would rather I'd never been on them at all.  Because my independent research tells me so.  And while I'd advise a client of my conclusions, I would never try to impose them.  I would never expect a client to substitute my judgement for theirs.  And that's exactly what a bullying doctor/healer does.

And I know the difference between bullying and confrontation and challenge.  I like a good challenge, and have a level head when it comes to honest confrontation.  But both confrontation and challenge stop short of domination.  They stop short of imposing the healer's will for mine.  That's the difference. 

So what do I do when I feel bullied by a healer?  I have several strategies:

- if it's a long-term relationship and I see a lot of value in it, I'd probably just confront it.  Give them a chance to hear me and understand their impact.

- if I'm not attached to them, I'd probably just leave.  There are other fish in the sea.  Why put up with it?

- in all cases, probably my first solution is to become my own authority.  do the research.  visit and interview experts.  form my own educated opinion.  Yes, even if it's a serious life-threatening issue.  Especially then.  As Buffy St. Marie sang "better to find out for yourself". 

A smart woman once told me when in doubt about a decision, look for the highest truth.  What is the highest truth when it comes to being bullied by your doctor?  For me, I value conscious choice too much to be willing to let myself be deprived of it.