The Machiavellian Empath
From Exploitable to Strategically Untouchable
An 8-week self-guided course for empaths who are done being emotionally accessible and harvested by narcissists – and are ready to recondition their reflexes at the root.
This is the only training that teaches empaths the exact strategic behaviors that stop guilt-trippers, manipulators, and emotional takers from ever controlling them again.
Press Play
You’re not here because you lack information. You’re here because narcissists bypass your awareness and trigger your reflexes. This course teaches you how to recondition those reflexes so manipulation can’t hook you.
The Actual Shift
From Prey To Power
Before:
The Pattern That Makes You Prey
You move through the world emotionally exposed.
People can predict your reactions, your guilt, your softness.
They know exactly when you’ll cave.
You over-explain because you want to be understood.
You apologize first because you fear being misinterpreted.
You stay too long because leaving feels cruel.
Your empathy becomes a resource people extract, not something you choose to give.
You’re not weak – you’re readable.
And readable gets exploited.
After:
The Identity They Can’t Handle
You become someone they can’t map anymore.
Someone who withdraws without warning.
Someone whose silence makes people adjust their behavior.
Your empathy becomes selective, not automatic.
Your presence becomes earned, not assumed.
You stop giving people the emotional roadmap they used to navigate you.
You don’t announce the shift.
They feel it – in your absence, in your restraint, in their loss of access.
This is about becoming inaccessible to exploitation.
And once that identity installs, the old version of you becomes obsolete.
You’ve been everyone’s emotional support system for long enough.
You know the pattern by now. You absorb everyone’s emotions. You fix everyone’s problems. You give endlessly without boundaries because that’s what good people do, right?
Except you’re exhausted. Resentful. Used.
And the soft approaches aren’t working. The gentle boundaries. The kind refusals. The patient explanations. None of it protects you from narcissists who are actively manipulating you.
Here’s why:
You’ve been told that boundaries are about communication. That if you just explain yourself clearly enough, kindly enough, firmly enough, people will respect your limits. But that only works when you’re dealing with people who have the capacity for reciprocity.
When you’re dealing with narcissists, Machiavellians, psychopaths – your empathy becomes their supply. They don’t respect boundaries. They test them. They use your explanations as roadmaps for how to manipulate you better.
They’re running tactics on you. And you don't even see it happening.
Guilt. Love-bombing. Triangulation. Intermittent reinforcement. Weaponizing your empathy to extract emotional labor. The people who were never your problem don't ask for respect. They command it through strategy. Strategic silence. Information gathering. Selective disclosure. Making themselves scarce to increase perceived value.
These are Machiavellian tactics. And they work.
The Dark Triad uses these methods for exploitation. I’m teaching you to use them for protection. Same tactics. Different motive.
You’re not becoming a narcissist by learning strategic silence – NPD develops from severe childhood trauma, attachment wounds, and genetic factors formed in early development. You can’t create a personality disorder by learning protective behaviors.
You’re learning the tactics that protect power. Not to exploit others, but to stop being exploited.
How The Game Changes
By the end, you won’t be announcing you’ve changed. The people who were using you will feel it. And they’ll either respect you or remove themselves.
01. When someone uses intermittent reinforcement to keep you hooked:
Before: You stay. You wait for the next moment of validation. You convince yourself it's worth it because sometimes they're good to you.
After: You see the pattern. You stop participating. You refuse to be conditioned by their inconsistency.
03. When a manipulator uses your words against you:
Before: You over-explain. You give them a detailed map of your boundaries, which they use to find the weak spots.
After: You stop explaining. You gather information instead. You see their strategy before they deploy it.
05. When someone weaponizes your empathy to extract emotional labor:
Before: You take on their pain. You drain yourself trying to help someone who isn’t trying to help themselves.
After: You withdraw your empathy. They realize you’re no longer available to regulate their emotions for them.
02. When someone weaponizes your empathy to extract emotional labor:
Before: You take on their pain. You drain yourself trying to help someone who isn’t trying to help themselves.
After: You withdraw your empathy. They realize you’re no longer available to regulate their emotions for them.
04. When someone love-bombs you after you've pulled away:
Before: You soften. You let them back in. You think, “Maybe they've changed.” They haven't.
After: You recognize the tactic. You let them destroy their own credibility by oscillating between charm and cruelty.
06. When family triangulates – turning others against you:
Before: You defend yourself. You try to control the narrative. You exhaust yourself managing everyone's perception of you.
After: You let them talk. The people who matter see through it. The ones who don’t weren't your people anyway.
WHO THIS IS FOR
WHO THIS IS FOR
This Is For You If:
✓ You've tried soft boundaries, and they don’t work with the people in your life
✓ You recognize that the traits you’ve been taught to fear are actually survival skills
✓ You’re ready to be strategic, not just self-aware
✓ You want to learn from someone who won’t let you backslide into people-pleasing when it gets uncomfortable
✓ You’re willing to adopt tactics that sound "toxic" because you finally understand they're protective
This Is Not For You If:
✗ You think setting boundaries means writing a heartfelt letter explaining your needs
✗ You're looking for soft feminine receiving energy (wrong course, wrong teacher)
✗ You believe everyone deserves your empathy (they don't)
✗ You're not ready to be called cold, selfish, or "changed" by people who were using you
✗ You think strategy is manipulation (it's actually intelligence, and you need it)
“Thank you so much! While it hurts, this truly makes it better.”
Daniella Cortez
“Christina has done something really amazing, from the workbook to the course, and honestly, this program has changed my life.”
Skye Minch
“Forever learning and forever growing. Christina was an amazing woman to help me along this journey in life.”
Jana Marie
The Framework
THE EXPLOITABILITY PROBLEM
Why Awareness Didn’t Save You
You already know the tactics. This module explains why that knowledge didn’t stop the pull – and reframes the real issue: conditioned reflexes that override logic under emotional pressure.
You’ll understand why insight alone keeps you stuck, and what actually needs to change.
MODULE 1
THE EMPATH REFLEX SYSTEM
How You’re Being Read
You’ll identify the specific reflexes that make you legible to manipulators – the signals you broadcast without realizing it that communicate safety, access, and compliance.
This is where you see how narcissists identify you long before you feel hooked.
MODULE 2
PRESSURE TESTING & MANIPULATION TRIGGERS
How Predators Assess You
Sob stories. Faux vulnerability. Urgency. Boundary nudges.
This module breaks down how pressure tests work, how failing them locks you into the role of supply, and how manipulation actually begins – before overt abuse ever shows up.
MODULE 3
MACHIAVELLIAN RECONDITIONING
Interrupting the Reflex Loop
This is the pivot point.
You begin reconditioning your responses in real time – shifting from emotional reflex to strategic response so empathy can no longer be weaponized against you.
This is where behavior actually changes.
MODULE 4
STRATEGIC DETACHMENT
Warmth Without Access
You learn the difference between connection and availability.
This module teaches you how to remain human, present, and warm without being emotionally reachable to manipulation – especially with people you can’t simply cut off.
MODULE 5
BECOMING UNREADABLE
Power Through Ambiguity
Predictability is dangerous.
Here, you learn strategic ambiguity: how to reduce emotional leakage, stop narrating your inner world, and become someone manipulators cannot easily read, test, or hook.
MODULE 6
THE MACHIAVELLIAN EMPATH IDENTITY
Integration, Not Performance
This is where the shift stabilizes.
You stop “doing strategy” and start being someone who is no longer exploitable by default. The new responses become embodied, not effortful.
MODULE 7
RELAPSE PREVENTION
Why You Go Back (and How to Stop)
The real threat isn’t ignorance – it’s relapse.
This module addresses:
Why clarity collapses under loneliness, nostalgia, or sexual pull
How grief and desire bypass strategy
What to do when the pull returns
How to prevent one moment of vulnerability from undoing everything
This is what keeps the work from snapping back.
MODULE 8
THE INVESTMENT
THE INVESTMENT
Standard Access
$197
SELF-PACED COURSE ONLY8-module self-paced course
Lifetime access
VIP Upgrade
$347
COURSE + TEXT COACHING8-module self-paced course
2 weeks of direct text coaching with Christina
Machiavellian Empath Workbook
Lifetime course access
Meet the Founder
Depth Coach / Shadow Alchemist / NLP Practioner
I’m Christina Zayas, Psychological Coach and founder of Cultesh.
I specialize in working with women who’ve been too accommodating for too long – the ones who are finally ready to stop being everyone’s emotional support system and learn to be strategic instead.
I teach shadow work and the uncomfortable truth that “empath” is often just trained codependency. That sensitivity without boundaries makes you prey. And that the fastest way to protection is learning from the people who were never your problem – the ones who know how to be ruthless.
This course teaches Machiavellian tactics and narcissist traits because those are the skills that actually protect you. Not gentle boundaries. Not spiritual bypassing. Real strategy. If you’re ready to stop being used and start being powerful, this is starts.
FAQ
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That's exactly why this is live coaching. I'll interrupt the guilt pattern in real-time and show you how to hold your ground when you want to cave.
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If you recognize the pattern of giving until you're empty while everyone around you takes, this is for you. The label doesn't matter. The pattern does.
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No. This course requires commitment. If you're not ready to learn Machiavellian tactics without an exit door, this isn't for you.
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No. Learning protective tactics doesn't make you exploitative. NPD develops from severe childhood trauma and attachment wounds – not from a 4-week course. You're learning behaviors, not developing a personality disorder. The people who benefit from you staying soft will call you "bad" for protecting yourself. That's their problem, not yours.
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They will. The people who were using you will be uncomfortable when you stop being available. That discomfort is theirs to process, not yours to manage. The ones who respected you will respect you more. The ones who were exploiting you will either adjust or remove themselves. Both outcomes protect you.
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Strategy is not manipulation. Manipulation is using tactics to exploit others for personal gain. Protection is using tactics to stop being exploited. Same methods, different motive. Machiavellians use these tactics to take. You're learning them to stop being taken from.