| Counselor educators need to effectively address intersecting identities within counselor education programs, including religion and spirituality (RS). Polls have shown that the majority of United States citizens ascribe to religious or spiritual beliefs (Gallup, 2017; Pew Research Center, 2014) and counseling research has expanded to address these experiences with clients. Counselor education research has been slower in growth and programs are incorporating RS sporadically (Adams, 2012; Cashwell & Young, 2004). Researchers are beginning to investigate the reasons behind this paucity, however, there is very little empirical guidance regarding what expert educators are doing to successfully address RS in programs (Adams, Puig, Baggs, & Wolf, 2015; Johns, 2017). In this study, I gatheredexpert opinions of RS instruction as a way to address this gap. I used Q methodology, a mixed method, to gather this information. Participants wereasked to sort a set of 44 statements regarding what is most important when teaching RS in counseling programs, andthey filledout accompanying demographic information and an open-ended questionnaire to inform results. The results of this study show that while there was some agreement among participants regarding RS instruction, educators also displayed significant differences. Participants fell into two factor groups: those who considered awareness and knowledge growth as thefoundation of competence, and those who considered skills acquisition to be more salient in counselor education. These results help inform counselor educator practices and provide clarity regarding expert educator viewpoints.Key Words: religion, spirituality, counselor education |