Meet Cheri Timko

Helping Couples Escape Roommate Syndrome and Reignite their Passion

“Together” but still feeling lonely and disconnected?

One of the hardest parts of “true love” is when it doesn’t live up to the promises. Remember the spark? The butterflies in your stomach, the late-night talks, the laughter that echoed through the room? Somewhere along the way, that fire dimmed and was replaced by comfy routines. Now you feel more like Roommates than Lovers. While you wouldn’t trade partners, you also miss the excitement, fun, closeness, and passion you experienced at the beginning of the relationship.

You crave more than just a perfectly curated life. Career and financial success are great. But you long for a partnership that makes the daily grind, the triumphs and trials, feel like a shared adventure. You crave a partnership that fuels your soul.

You’re looking for the secret to a lifelong, loving relationship. Good news! Deep connections are my specialty.

Reignite your relationship through structured married dating.

Hi! I’m Cheri Timko

I help long-term couples avoid the doldrums of Roommate Syndrome so they can connect deeply, meet life goals, and find peace and passion together.

During my decades as a couples therapist, I’ve helped couples like you navigate the challenges and pitfalls of long-term love. I’ve witnessed the pain of crises like infidelity, unresolved conflicts, and mounting disappointments. It’s painful to see how deeply we can hurt each other. But I also saw a recurring theme: the warning signs, often subtle, that were ignored months before the storm hit.

One of the biggest culprits? Roommate Syndrome. Six months to a year before a relationship crisis happens, a couple experiences irritability, disappointment, and loneliness. The signs can be subtle shifts that creep in without much notice. These symptoms of disconnection need to be a wake-up call. By recognizing these early signs, you can bypass future crises and rebuild a connection that thrives, not just survives.

Avoid a future relationship crisis by responding to the signs of Roommate Syndrome.

Don't wait. Get started today by signing up for the free Relationship Guides.

What truly works for couples

EVERY couple needs to work at having a satisfying relationship. You get to choose what that work looks like. I believe it should be fun.

Every couple struggles to feel connected and solve problems at some points in the relationship. You are two different people with unique perspectives and experiences–you’re not supposed to see eye-to-eye all of the time.

My work with couples shows that most couples need to work on some combination of these problems:

Communicating well
Solving Problems
Managing irritability, sadness, worry, loneliness, and jealousy
Getting their individual needs met
Negotiating closeness, intimacy, and space
Building emotional safety and relationship trust

I've summed up my expertise in courses, programs, and resources that will help you solve these problems.

Through trial and error, collecting and testing relationship tools, and witnessing the transformation of hundreds of couples, I’ve uncovered the most powerful strategies to improve your relationship. These are woven into every program I create and run. You’ll find an emphasis on:

You an access some of these resources right away.

Through couples coaching, you can access the many benefits of working together:

You will not only feel better about your partner and your relationship, but you will also have tools to keep your relationship on the right track for many years to come.

The transformations you’ll experience:

make eye contact across the room and know what your partner is thinking.
look forward to spending time together.
feel more loving and kind towards one another.
solve the re-occurring problems that plague you.
act like partners in your relationship and life.
have deeper respect for one another.
have new memories to look back on.
feel confidence that you can work through future problems.
feel excited about the future.

Most importantly, you will know the essential steps to get back in sync when you feel disconnected in the future.

Your love should last a lifetime.

Start the process to reignite your relationship today. Sign up for free Relationship Guides.

Want to know more about me? Here are some of the things you won’t find on my resume:

My husband and I started dating each other again when our kids were teens. After 20+ years of marriage, we still enjoy each other’s company. Some dates are fun but we spend others figuring out how to adjust to our new lives with fewer parenting responsibilities.

I love that my kids were homeschooled, but for myself, I disliked most of it. I didn’t have enough personal drive to homeschool to be good at it. (Luckily, my kids are amazing!)

I have three daughters and NO regrets that I didn’t raise a son. We’ve been very close throughout their childhoods.

Favorite fruits: cherries, pears, watermelon, and blueberries. Favorite meal: cheese-stuffed pizza, steak, and lasagna. Favorite snack: chocolate in any form.

I miss having my kids at home but I am excited to do the things that I missed while raising them. I love that I have time to create tools and programs, write, and speak.

I may not remember a place, an event, or a face, but I can give you a detailed description of the food. If I hadn’t been a therapist and coach, I would have been a baker.

I am a finisher. It’s hard for me to quit on a show, book, or project until it’s completed. Even if it sucks.

I love and respect my husband. He is one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met both at work and home. He always has my back. Yet…..I’ll still call him on being checked out or going through the motions. When he said “I do,” he agreed to create an extraordinary relationship with me.

This is the time to kick Roommate Syndrome to the curb so you can connect deeply with your partner and claim the lifelong, satisfying relationship you deserve.

Get support and help for your relationship by signing up for the free resources that will get you started.

Here are some interview excerpts with questions that others have asked me:

What motivated you to get into this work into the first place?

It’s been a journey. I didn’t start out knowing I wanted to work with couples. I started out working with teenagers. I loved that work but they were so frustrated because they really didn’t have much say in their lives. Most of that work was about teaching skills and helping them be patient. The next step was when I started working with their parents in family counseling.

That was much more effective and it helped all the kids in the family not just that child. The surprising discovery was when I came to realize that I could work with just the parents and I didn’t even need the kids in the room. That became very powerful in terms of being able to change things for the whole family. This really was an evolution of purpose.

What's your favorite part of working with couples?

There’s this moment in couple’s work where a couple shifts. I wish I had words for it because I don’t. It’s such an experiential thing. They will show up and they’ll be interacting with each other and they’ll be relaxed. I recognize that shift when it happens and it’s such a privilege for me to be there. That’s when I know that they’re on the right track. They’re going to move forward and things are going to be better from there.

What's your mission?

It’s twofold:

1) I want to reduce the divorce rate. I started out wanting to impact my region. My region is very small. I’m in West Virginia and the whole state has 1.8 million people. When you compare that to other places–like there are cities that have bigger populations than that–so my focus really was on this region. It’s been awesome because, when I really think about, I have impacted so many families just in this North Central Area of West Virginia. But beyond, that I actually want to impact the world. I think I can do that through coaching.

2) I believe in marriage and I believe that most couples can have a really amazing
relationship. It’s not not enough to have an okay relationship with your spouse. Couples can have a really amazing relationship and it doesn’t take a huge amount of work. Usually it takes small, consistent changes that are thoughtful. I think people give up on that
way too easily.

What lights you up the most about your work?

I get really excited about this work. People can geek out on all sorts of things but I don’t know that many others geek out on couples relationships very often. That’s really what I do. What I love is finding these small things that couples can do that shift the whole relationship. It’s one of the benefits of being in a long-term relationship. You can make a small change that over time leads to big change. It’s like if you’re walking on a path and you diverge even just one degree. Because it’s a long-term relationship over time you get to a very different place. I’m always looking for the smallest thing someone can do. What is a fun thing because it shouldn’t be excruciating. It should be fun. Then watch how they can make these shifts by just being consistent over a long period of time.

Could you give us an example of one small thing that you have led couples to do perhaps that led them into a really much more fulfilling place in their marriage?

There’s a test that couples can do to see if my program is going to work for them. For three days in a row, pick something and say thank you to their partner for it. It’s such a minor thing. People think it doesn’t matter but just saying, “I see that you did this and my life is better because of it. Thank you for doing that.” In three days, you will see a softening in your partner. It’s not going to change your whole world. You’d have to do it for more than three days for that to happen. But you can see this softening in your partner. The other benefit is the softening that happens in you. It probably takes less than 30 seconds a day to do that but it can shift how the relationship feels.

What motivates your work now?

I believe that the marriage relationship is one of the most powerful relationships. When that functions well, you can create a sacred space where you can show up and be who you really truly are. And from that provides a springboard to do so many other things in life, because of that security that comes from that relationship.

What relationship habits do you and your husband of 20+ years practice?

We have several touch points throughout the day including:

Rituals to say “good morning” and “good night.”
We will check-in a few times throughout the workday.
When I walk by his workstation, I’ll touch his shoulder or give him a kiss.
On Fridays, we jointly plan our weekends.
We spend quality time together once a week.
We spend 10-15 minutes talking together most nights.

Ready to Reignite Your Relationship? Sign up for the free Relationship Guides to get started.

Contact Cheri

Sign up for the weekly Date Night Community Newsletter

Send questions to:

ctimko@cheritimko.com