Akai Wellness Center, New York

Since the doors to Akai Wellness Center opened in 2010, the mission at the pain-management center has remained unchanged. The staff's simple goal is to help clients lead active, healthy lives, free of the life-altering scourge of chronic pain. The center has a team of acupuncturists and massage therapists who use their specialties to ease pain, and they even create blended treatments to best serve clients. Before so much as beginning a massage or whittling an iron bar into a tiny acupuncture needle, the team takes the time to listen to each client's pain issues and devise a plan for treating them.