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PLAINVILLE--Marilyn Scallon and Louise Manning deal with doubters, skeptics and bona fide non-believers on a daily basis.

Their response is simple: Come in for a treatment.

The pair had been practicing their nontraditional forms of healing separately for several years and grew accustomed to the questions and raised eyebrows in response to what they do.

Previously, Scallon's `` A New Day Yoga'' and Manning's `` Amethyst Moon'' were next to each other in downtown North Attleboro.

Now, the two have joined forces and formed the Wellness Collaborative, a holistic healing and wellness center that offers services such as yoga, sound therapy, aromatherapy, acupuncture, tarot card readings, meditation, workshops and Reiki, an energy form of healing based on hands-on touch. `` We came together and this is our dream,'' said Scallon, a certified yoga instructor who's been practicing the Hindu discipline for 10 years and teaching it for five.

In addition to owners Manning and Scallon, Suites 209 and 210 in the TriTown Professional Building are also home to other holistic healing practitioners like Robin Wiseman, an energy healer, Reiki therapist and color-light therapist.

Manning said the inclusion of so many alternative practitioners in one space has given clients a `` menu'' of things to try that they might not otherwise have access to.

The pair aren't just practitioners, though. They're also clients.

Scallon is a breast cancer survivor who received Reiki and practiced yoga while going through chemotherapy and radiation treatments and continues those practices to this day.

Manning was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 38 and previously used medication to address the problem -- cortisone injections were required every six months.

After five months of Reiki sessions for an hour every other week, she said she hasn't needed another cortisone injection since 1995.

As of three years ago, she stopped taking medication of any kind and continues Reiki treatments today.

`` Because of the work we do, I'm healthier today at 57 than I was 10 years ago at 47,'' Manning said. `` I don't take an aspirin for a headache because I don't get them.''

Manning, who received her MBA in 1997 and worked at Brigham and Women's Hospital for 10 years before starting Amethyst Moon, said that hospitals are starting to incorporate nontraditional healing techniques alongside traditional medicine. Reiki, for example, is used at holistic centers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island.

She said the nontraditional treatments both supplement and enhance traditional techniques and are known to lessen side effects, but aren't intended as a replacement.

Both Scallon and Manning still go to doctors for regular checkups and annual mammograms.

`` We don't advocate not seeing a physician,'' Manning said. `` We advocate seeing a physician, finding out what's going on and seeing how can we help with that.''

Their new space, open since February 1, speaks to the pair's vision for an oasis, or `` sacred space,'' separate from the hustle and bustle of the outside world.

The slowed-down environment is defined by dim lighting, candles, incense, instrumental music and the steady rush of water from the smiling Buddha fountain sitting by the doorway.

`` It's really about coming back to yourself again,'' Scallon said.

Phones and pagers get turned off and the only clocks kept are ones used to time sessions or readings.

River rock serves as a resting space for shoes, which must be removed upon entering.

`` You really are leaving the outside right there -- you're not tracking it in,'' Manning said.

Words like energy, connection, and faith get used often. Scallon talks about being in the moment. Manning talks about the God of her understanding.

But the bottom line, they say, is that people want something that works.

`` I think people want to be well, and they want whatever it will take to get there,'' Manning said.

For more information about The Wellness Collaborative, call 508-699-0709.