Sadly that is the usual policy, with appointments and sessions being as scarce as they are they need to know you are reliable before starting so you wont just drop out halfway through. I had to have loads of tedious meetings before DBT and even now if i miss 4 sessions in a row you are dropped. It might seem harsh but you can understand their logic, these waitlists are huge and they need people who are going to turn up. They also say that if you cant commit to turning up (i.e you MH is too severe atm) then it is not the best time for you to be having therapy as you need to be there in mind as well as in person for any of it to go in and for you to be able to work on it. It's also not really the psych's job once you have been passed to psychotherapy