[2][3] She was the youngest of three children and the daughter of Paul Hellman, the textile mill owner and co-founder of the Salzburg Festival, and his wife Irene Hellman-Redlich.
[4] When she left school,[3] and having grown a fascination with children in Vienna,[6] she enrolled on a two-year course that specialised in juvenile delinquency and child psychology against the wishes of her family.
[4][7] Hellman ventured to France in 1931 and attended evening classes in child psychology at the Sorbonne whilst working at a young offenders' home for those ineligible to be sent to prison close to Paris,[5][6][7] from 1931 to 1932.
[1][2][3] In 1937, after earning her Doctor of Philosophy degree,[3] she was invited by Bühler to go to the Parents' Association Institute in London and aid in her study of children who had learning disabilities.
[1][8] The Home Office employed her to work with child evacuees escaping from the threat of air raids to rural areas from London from 1939 to 1941.
[2][6] Many of the children Hellman worked with had psychological problems from being separated from their families and had a variety of conditions such as nocturnal enuresis, eating disorders, and disturbed sleep.
[2][6] She worked with two separate analysts for each practice analysing mother and child and a coordinator to compile the findings until her worsening health forced her to retire in 1992 but maintained an interest in her profession.