The struts are a combination of spring and shock all in one assembly to
save space. their location, spring rate, and shock absorbancy are all
part of the vehicle design. You can't just stick a shock where the
strut is. If  you added a shock with a helper spring you would have an
improperly designed strut. If you could redesign the car around your
new shock, yes it could be done.
Why not share what you actually have in mind?  Are you having a problem
with strut performance or changing struts?  Is it the cost that makes
you wonder? Almost anything is possible at some cost.

I agree with the previous poster, why would you want to do this?  You
can even now buy complete strut assemblies, including the spring, shock
absorber, bearings, the whole nine yards.  Completely assembled and
ready to go.  No need to mess with compressing the spring.

 In one word.. "NO".  Why do you want to?  It;s common for the upper mounts to fail
and rattle before you notice the struts are whipped on a Tempo. If this is the case,
full strut\spring\spindle assemblies are available at the local bone yard for short
money. I recently replaced the whole left front assembly on a wreck for $50. These
cars are getting pretty old these days, so used parts are cheap. I don't usually
recommend used parts like these, but for a 14 or more year old car it's a viable
option to keep it going. I usually look at the available parts cars and often find one
where the struts, etc are reasonably new(ish).