By Shannon Jones

Through alternative therapies, some New Yorkers seek happiness and inner peace.

Phyllis Berg, an alternative practitioner in Park Slope, opens her doors to demonstrate the power of crystals, light and sound. Crystals in bowls are all around her home. They line one fireplace. Her Healing Room has a bed made of crushed crystals, and her crystal “Singing Bowls” is tuned to produce a resonating, almost bell-like sound.

Berg said she used to “help people deal better with stress or to eliminate pain” and help her clients “to feel more in charge of their lives… and be on the path that really supports their goals and dreams and their health and well-being.”

Berg, like many other practitioners, has visited the Rockstar Crystal Shop in Chelsea, where alternative therapies seem to converge. Alex Fraumeni, a sales clerk, said visitors benefit from the energetic properties of minerals. “There’s a lot of people that come in here because they need some type of healing,” she said. “Those are people who are usually referred to us by friends or Reiki practitioners,” referring to a Japanese form of stress reduction and meditation, “or some other healers.”