She completed her master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of the Free State in 2002 and Community Service at the South African National Defence Force in 2003. After this she worked for two years at the Child Guidance Clinic in Welkom, where she gained experience in working with children who were exposed to severe psychological trauma. Hylma also trained educators in basic counselling skills and the identification of child psychopathology. For the next seven years she worked for the South African National Defence Force as a Clinical Psychologist. Her duties included child and adult psychotherapy, family therapy, marital and couple’s therapy, assessment of the psychological functioning of soldiers, training and supervision of intern clinical psychology students and doing research.