The political convictions she developed as a student set the foundation for a lifelong engagement in social causes, especially related to the needs of children, adolescents, and women.

[4] She continued her psychoanalysis in Berlin as a student under Salomea Kempner,[5] and in 1933 and 1934 she was accepted in the German and Danish-Norwegian Psychoanalytic associations, respectively.

On 25 November 1942, the head of the Nansen Committee Sigrid Lunn received a phone call from an unknown man, who warned them that "there would be another party, this time they would be collecting the smallest parcels".

[6] In the early morning of that day, 26 November 1942, Nick and Nina drove the 14 children of the orphanage, the oldest at the time 12 years old, to the villa of Waal's friend Gerde Tandberg in Ullern, a suburb of Oslo.

In the morning when they were getting ready, the children were told to put on two of each item of clothing, the eldest boy was instructed to hide 10,000 kronor in his boots - this money was to pay for a taxi to the Swedish border.

They had to carry the boots in their hands - there was a woman who lived on the ground floor of their house who was sympathetic to the Nazis, and the children had to leave without attracting her attention.

She remained on the staff at Gaustad and also at Ullevål hospital, but also worked in Denmark, United States, Switzerland, and France, with Serge Lebovici.

[1] Soon after her application to be the chief of staff at the newly formed Institute for Paediatric and Adolescent Psychiatry at Rikshospitalet was turned down (supposedly because her physical presentation was messy) in 1951, she started her own institute, named Nic Waals Institutt; first in her basement in the suburb Husebygrenda and eventually to the "blue house" in Munkedamsveien near Skillebekk.

[1] Waal remained professionally active as the director of her institute until her death in 1960, also finding time to help juvenile offenders.

She made lasting contributions within the areas of:[1] When interviewed by the Norwegian radio shortly before her death, she said: Many people think something with their heads and feel something different with their heart.