An excellent article with this title was posted on the Chaords Everywhere I Look weblog. Here's the first two points:

1. Don't call yourself a patient. You're a client (under the care of another) or a partner-in-health or whatever funky name.

2. Don't go to get your symptoms fixed. Holistic health is not about symptomatic relief. It is about healing the entire body. The holistic health practitioner (the good ones) will always respond to your complaints about symptoms with the same response. a) They'll listen to you. b) They'll empathize. c) They'll ask questions. d) They'll proceed with a whole-body healing program that is not focused on fixing those symptoms immediately. It may make you mad if you're used to the "give me a pill" health protocol. But it works infinitely better. Trust the process and the practitioner. You hear me saying this now, but then when you try the holistic process, you'll still want to revert to your symptomatic way of thinking. I do it all the time.

You can read the entire thing here. Now if I only knew who this person was!