Referrals and New Patients

As of August 1st, 2026, We have made the difficult decision to close our Comprehensive (Individual + Group) wait list external and self referrals.

While we are delighted that more and more people are seeking DBT as a treatment, our small staff team is currently well over capacity, and we believe it is unfair to patients to add them to a wait list that is, at this point, nearly 3 years long.

Effective immediately, patients may only be referred to the Comprehensive DBT wait list via internal order/psych abstract from a Penn Medicine provider. If patients are still interested in Comprehensive DBT, we advise they become established with psychiatry or psychology care through one of our other clinics if possible and then discuss goodness of fit for DBT with that provider.

Patients can also access information on how to locate other non-Penn DBT programs via our FAQ page.

Enroll in Skills-Group Only DBT

If you are a patient interested in participating in our DBT Program, please call our call center at 215-746-6701.

At the time of the call, it is important that you do the following:

1. Verify your current health insurance with our staff
2. Activate MyChart by My Penn Medicine
3. Identify that you are interested in our DBT Skills Training Group Only program.  For more information on our other programs, see our Services page.

Insurance:

We will not be able to process your referral without updated insurance status, an active MyChart account, and knowledge of which program you are interested in. Once your referral is received, we will use MyChart to deliver the initial screening survey that will activate you on our wait list.

What to expect after referral:

Please note, the initial screening survey will provide you with the details of the date/time/format for our various DBT skills groups as well as the estimated group wait list time frame. Once your survey is completed, you can expect to be contacted directly for your DBT Commitment Interview after the estimated wait time detailed on the screening.

Telemedicine Restrictions:

We are only delivering DBT via telemedicine in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Out-of-state patients are always welcome to participate in in-person programming at 3535 Market Street, Philadelphia.

Please note, it is difficult for our clinicians to take inquiry calls and you may have an extended wait for information if you are requesting a return call. Our preferred method of communication is through our program email: PennDBT@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu .

Enroll in DBT Graduate Skills Group

DBT Graduate Group is a 12-week virtual group for patients who have already completed a minimum of 6 months of DBT skills training, whether at Penn Medicine or elsewhere.

This group was designed by our team to help you generalize the skills you learned in standard group to your own goals. Participants will commit to identifying steps toward their life worth living goal, use DBT behavioral analysis techniques to address problem behaviors, and generalize skills use in every relevant context. 

As you have already completed standard DBT skills group, you will be asked to take a more active role in some aspects of group. You will share your experience with homework in the past week, help other participants troubleshoot skills use, and assign your own value-driven homework.  Group leaders will facilitate discussion, assist with skills troubleshooting, and offer some additional didactic information over the course of group.  

Graduate Skills Group is offered several times a year as a "cohort" style group, meaning 5 patients total per round. If you are interested in being added to the Graduate Skills group wait list and contacted when we are actively recruiting, please reach out to us at PennDBT@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu with the subject line "Graduate Group" and our team will follow up with further instructions.