A Personal Journey: El-Ad Cohen's Path to Founding Tempest
The foundation of Tempest Health and Wellness is rooted in my own lived experience. My exposure to martial arts, dance, military service, and physical therapy have shaped my approach to health and wellness.
The journey began on the East Coast, immersed in martial arts and dance. My military service further tested my physical and mental limits, leading to a series of injuries and a challenging rehabilitation process. These experiences underscored the importance of sustainable training practices and personalized care.
Commitment to Evidence-Based Practices
After my own experience with injury, I experienced both poorly executed, ineffective medical care as well as high quality, competent physical therapy, and developed a a desire to help others overcome injury and physical adversity using the best science available and an empathy-driven patient-centered attitude.
I pursued physical therapy school in Israel, honed my clinical skills and participated in scientific research, gained perspective from operating clinically in a wide variety of environments from the intensive care unit to the outpatient clinic, and treated a wide variety of populations and problems.
From athletes to older adults, Syrian refugees and chronic pain cases. I later obtained my Colorado physical therapy license, having passed boards twice, both in Israel and the United States, in both Hebrew and English. My commitment to integrating science into all aspects of my practice ensures that Tempest Health and Wellness offers evidence-based care to its clients.
Commitment to Accessibility
Having been through military rehabilitation, seen fully socialized medicine and the current US system, I realized something was missing from current health care models. We treat the problem when it arises, rather than prevent it.
We get symptom relief, not a real solution to the cause. We get people back to work and school, but we don’t get to make sure that they never sustain the same injury again. Sessions in most settings aren’t long enough to really reach the root cause of the problem, clinical environments that can make it hard for patients to really focus and learn how to correct their problem long term, along with insurance nightmares and denial of coverage, as well as clinicians too overburdened to treat effectively led to the start of the Tempest model:
1 full hour, in-home and on-site care, and the option to continue physical training after rehabilitation is over to reinforce and build on the gains made in physical therapy.
During the military I had poor access to medicine and clinical attention. That’s why Tempest is committed to accessibility, and offer alternative payment options and pricing to those who need them.
Commited to Solving the Problem Before it Starts
The injuries that I sustained in the military were entirely preventable. Despite what some vets have experienced, my broad experience with the physical training in the military was ‘throw them all at the wall and see who sticks’. People got injured, badly, for no good reason. Later, in physical therapy school, the more knowledge I acquired about injury pathophysiology and exercise science the more I understood that I had been done a disservice during my service.
Many people have tremendous athletic and physical potential but it gets masked by training gradients that are too steep, if they are graded at all. All too often I hear of people who were injured by a coach or trainer because the programming was too aggressive, if it was not just entirely haphazard. A systematic approach, wherein we identify where you need improve, and shore up weakness as well as exposing you to the challenges that will let you grow in the direction you want to go are what we are all about at Tempest.
I am especially passionate about injury prevention, and helping people build resilient bodies. You’d be surprised what you can adapt to, if things are done correctly.
