Insurance accepted
Using TRICARE at The Denning Center
San Antonio is a military city and this comes up constantly. The practice is in network for TRICARE. What you need to know first is which plan you hold, because Prime and Select do not work the same way.
Prime and Select behave differently
TRICARE Prime is the managed-care option. It is built around a primary care manager and referrals, and for many beneficiary categories routine outpatient mental health visits can be self-referred — but the rules differ by who you are (active duty, family member, retiree) and getting this wrong is expensive. Active duty service members are the strictest case and generally require command or PCM involvement before care.
TRICARE Select is the self-managed, fee-for-service option. You can generally see a network provider without a referral, and you pay a cost share rather than nothing. There is an annual deductible on most Select plans.
Who administers TRICARE in Texas
This changed, and the old answer is still all over the internet. Under the current regional contracts, Texas sits in the TRICARE West region, administered by TriWest Healthcare Alliance. Humana Military administers the East region. If you moved here from an East-region state, your administrator changed even though your plan did not.
Practically: check the region on your current card and call that administrator, not the one you used at your last duty station. We work with both. More on TriWest · More on Humana Military.
Why this practice, for military families
Jim has used Accelerated Resolution Therapy with veterans through the Lone Survivor Foundation, and the veterans and military page describes how that work actually runs. ART does not require you to narrate what happened out loud, which is the specific barrier that stops a lot of service members from starting.
If insurance turns out not to be the right route
Private pay is $130 for a standard 50-minute session, with no claim, no authorisation and no session limit set by anybody else. For some people that genuinely works out better, and we will say so if it does. Full fees and the questions to ask your plan.
Written and clinically reviewed by Jim Denning, MA, LPC. Last reviewed 1 September 2026.
We review health content at least once a year, and sooner when clinical guidance, fees, insurance, or crisis information changes. Tell us if something here looks wrong.
Questions
TRICARE, specifically
Do I need a referral for therapy under TRICARE?
It depends on your plan and your beneficiary category. Select generally does not for a network provider; Prime varies, and active duty service members are the strictest case. Confirm with your regional administrator before the first session — authorisation obtained afterwards does not cover sessions that already happened.
Will my command find out I am in therapy?
In most circumstances mental health care is confidential in the same way any other health care is, with narrow exceptions that exist regardless of who is paying — risk of serious harm, certain duty-related reporting requirements, and court orders. If this is your main worry, ask it out loud in the first call. It is a reasonable question and it deserves a specific answer rather than a reassuring one.
Tell us your plan and we will check it
Send the plan name — not the member ID — and we will verify where you stand before you commit to anything.