Being bullied as a physiothearapist

Today the question I discussed with my sister:

Did I get bullied by my patients and why I didn't feel it?
Priya didn't come today, so I was seeing some of her patients. Anyways within the first few days of my work as SSL, everyone has been quite "worried" for me... oh look at her she is going to be bullied by patients.

So today I was seeing patients, of course some patients are more anxious, lazy, full of excuses.... etc. But in my mind, if you don't want to do exercise, it's your loss, I actually didn't feel bullied at all. (I felt more bullied if my colleagues keep saying that I will get bullied)

But is it my responsibility to be firm with them (if being very loud or threatening or constant bugging is considered firm in here) so that they are sure to be doing ENOUGH amount of exercise they are entitled to? Sometimes people just need to be pushed.... so YES.

It's not about me being bullied, is letting them to help me help them. Got my job done.
YES. I should treat them like a kid. Our relationship is not teacher to kid. It's adult to adult. I don't think they didn't respect me... I think they are just trying to talk their way out. But this means I am allowing them to be unnecessarily dependent and non-compliant.

I am also judgmental to think that why do they have patients that has come for years? I am simply new to this concept, because in my training we are always aiming for a discharge. And we don't see them as often. If they can do certain things at home, why do they still need us?
But then, SSL patients, maybe because it is cheap, they don't mind coming here every week, to get some exercise, or just some social time? A lot of patients won't do exercise at home so their family want them to come here to do some exercise. So maybe they put their hope on health professionals to be firm with them. To make them do things that they won't do at home.
So I am seeing that I need to see what is the patient's goal. Is it to progress fast? Or just maintain? Or more for socialising? If the condition has been the same for a long time, is it ok to be more lenient sometimes, skip a few rounds or repetitions? Is it better to build patient rapport first before pushing them hard?
I also felt that I have a tendency to feel bad for giving my patients exercise and I felt like I need to give discount. I need to change this habit. I need to try to stick to at least their current numbers of reps to maintain it.
I also need to find the balance between being respectful, nice and being firm and clear.