Jedd and Kristen Wellenkotter started Forward Physical Therapy because they knew what physical therapy could be. They had seen it in the research. They had learned it in their training. They believed that building a clinic the right way — treating clinicians and patients the way they deserve to be treated — would outcompete anyone cutting corners.
Build it right and the rest follows.
What We Do
Forward is a physical therapy clinic built on a simple idea: if you connect exercise science to clinical practice, measure everything that matters, and give clinicians the environment to do their best work, the results speak for themselves.
We operate under direct access. No referral needed. Our clinicians evaluate you, design your plan of care, and determine how long you need to be here based on objective data — not a prescription scribbled on a referral pad by someone who spent seven minutes with you. Physical therapy is an independent profession, and we practice it that way.
We built Return+, a proprietary clinical testing platform grounded in nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles. For patients in our surgical, sports, osteoporosis, and health capacity programs, Return+ tracks performance across the entire course of care — strength symmetry, aerobic capacity, body composition, ventilatory thresholds, grip strength, balance, gait quality, and patient-reported outcomes. The individual testing components from Return+ are used across our entire clinic, so every patient benefits from the same evidence-based measurement tools whether they are on a formal program or not.
We focus on what makes our patients live longer today. Aerobic fitness. Muscle mass. Bone density. Functional capacity. These are the metrics that drive longevity, and we test them in a PT clinic because physical therapists are the most qualified providers to do it. We are not waiting for something to break before we get involved. We are getting upstream.
When your insurance requires authorization, we generate the documentation that gets you the most out of your plan. Our clinical data tells a story that insurance companies can read — objective measures, functional progress, medical necessity backed by numbers. We advocate for every visit you deserve.
This is physical therapy practiced at the highest level we know how. We built the tools. We built the systems. We built the environment. And we are not done building.
The Founders
Kristen Wellenkotter
PT, DPT, CF-L1
Owner | Head of Finance, HR & Scheduling
Kristen runs the business. Finance, HR, scheduling, operations — she keeps the entire machine moving. But she is also on the floor sharpening the team. She leads quarterly clinician intensive meetings — half-day training sessions where the entire team deep dives into the research, presents on multiple topics, and breaks into groups to practice the skills they have learned.
She is an ICE-certified specialist in orthopedics and fitness athlete care, serves as adjunct faculty for the Institute of Clinical Excellence teaching physical therapists across the country, and is a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer who practices what she teaches.
Jedd Wellenkotter
PT, DPT, MS, EPC
Owner | Head of Clinical Operations & Technology
Jedd is an exercise scientist and software developer. He holds a Master of Science in Exercise Science alongside his Doctorate of Physical Therapy. Before building full-time, he competed at the highest level of endurance sport — multiple Ironman triathlons, including a top-100 finish at the 2015 Ironman World Championships. That same intensity now goes into building the clinical systems that power Forward.
He built Lune, a clinical operating system that runs every note, every visit, and every outcome measure at Forward. He built Return+, a testing platform grounded in nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles that gives clinicians and surgeons objective, data-driven proof of where a patient stands. He built them because the tools the profession had were not good enough for the care he wanted to deliver.
Built for Clinicians
Forward is built around the people who make it run. Our clinicians get time in their day to train. They have the schedule flexibility to be present for their families. They spend half days every quarter in clinician intensives — sharpening their craft together as a team, diving deep into the research, presenting on clinical topics, and practicing new skills hands-on.
We are building the best place to practice physical therapy in the country. When clinicians are healthy, supported, and given the tools and time to operate at their best, patients get care that is worth traveling for. That is the model.
The name is not just a name. It is a direction. Forward is what happens when physical therapists stop accepting the way things have always been done and start building toward what the profession is capable of becoming.