05/25/2026
Every patient I have treated has taught me something.
It has been quite a journey of learning, and I cherish every lesson. I have been blessed to stand in the presence of amazing people in the industry. Many iconic and legendary PTs and MDs have influenced my career, and from each I have taken a seed, a principle, a question, a way of touching tissue, a way of listening, that I have fostered and embraced, shaping me as a person and as a clinician.
But some of my most enduring lessons did not come from a clinic or a conference.
In 1988, one of my patients insisted on teaching me leather tooling. He had picked up on something true about me: if it is manual and artistic, I am in. That first lesson sent me on my first trip to Tandy Leather, and I walked out with tools, books, hides ranging from 4–5 oz to 10–11 oz, blades, rivets, mallets, swivel knives, edge bevelers, and anything my hands could carry.
Oh man, did I enjoy it. The detail. The craft. The intricacy of every cut, stitch, and beveled edge. The patience of a single line. The discipline of finishing what you start. Yousef Ghandour
What began as a hobby slowly turned into QTEK Products (QTEKProducts.com), where I have hand-made leather exercise belts for physical therapy clinics and patients across the country. The deepest reward of this journey is not the craft itself. It is what comes back around. When I travel to teach courses, I sometimes walk into a clinic and see one of my belts hanging on a hook, a byproduct of my hobby and handywork, worn smooth from use, doing the work it was built to do. A patient taught me a skill. That skill became a tool. That tool now helps other patients heal. I get emotional every single time.
That chapter is now drawing to a close. A few items remain in my storage, a handful of finished belts, a roll of hide, a set of well-worn tools, quiet witnesses to a craft that gave me far more than I ever gave it. The hands that tooled those belts are still mine, and they are still building. They have simply turned to other work.
That work is TheraPulley (Therapulley.com): a portable home exercise gym designed by a physical therapist for the realities of modern life. Flexible. Mobile. Adjustable. A gym in a bag.
TheraPulley is now in the hands of Major League Baseball pitchers, professional football and soccer athletes, and, most meaningfully to me, the general patient population working to rebuild strength and motion at home.
To every physical therapist, every physician, and every patient who has shared a seed with me, thank you. I am still planting.
