The realities of current practice necessitate that clinicians engage in briefer forms of treatment with borderline patients despite the fact that long-term treatment has been considered the treatment of choice because of their entrenched and pervasive personality difficulties, severe developmental arrests, and history of trauma. Most short-term treatment models are ill-suited for work with the borderline population because they favor highly motivated and well-functioning patients who have circumscribed problems. Nevertheless, there is a considerable body of practice principles that can be adapted to brief treatment with borderlines. This paper reviews the clinical features of borderline disorders and current views on their origins and treatment and then describes the components of an integrative short-term treatment framework.