If you’ve found yourself questioning the communication and intimacy in your relationship, you’re not alone. In fact, there’s an actual term for it – the “roommate phase” – whereby couples merely become cohabiting companions, as opposed to romantic partners.

“One of the things I see all the time when relationships break down is that people feel they were not connected to their partner, and that they didn’t really communicate,” accredited family mediator Louisa Whitney tells Stylist. “They might have talked about very basic household fundamentals, but they weren’t talking about their worries, their dreams or what lights them up.”

And it’s understandable for many of us to feel disconnected from our partner at times. After all, it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of work, children, and general life.

“Relationships require work and a commitment to spend connected time together. This is true of friendships, and even more so of intimate relationships where it becomes easy to take the other for granted,” says UKCP psychotherapist Mark Vahrmeyer, co-founder of Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy.

“Research would suggest that couples who laugh, cry, dance and can be still tough and supportive fare well over the long term. A couple who make time (at least 45 minutes to an hour per week) to connect – which means to talk and to listen to each other – are essentially maintaining the bond with each other.”

“Many of the couples I see have found that intimacy slips away when they’re busy or tired, so having regular opportunities for intimacy, including sex, can help keep a relationship alive,” adds trauma, relationships, and psychosexual therapist Cate Campbell.

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