GOINGS ON SANTA BARBARA : Art and Alcoholism : A therapist will give a lecture and slide show about the surprising things that happen when she helps patients draw out their feelings.

Santa Barbara therapist Betsy Gallery knows that some of her clients’ feelings can’t be expressed in words. In many cases, she said, it’s easier for those feelings to be expressed in art.

“Once you put something down on paper, even a line or a dot, you will be able to look at things from a different perspective,” she said. “The very act of putting something down on paper gives the client a lot of power, actively participating in their own therapy.”

Gallery will give a lecture and slide show on art therapy Saturday at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. The program will focus specifically on work she did last year with a group of alcoholic men who had been arrested for driving while intoxicated. She will show some of the art and discuss the meanings and feelings behind the pieces.

During six, two-hour sessions Gallery asked the men to show through art how it feels to be under the influence of alcohol, their perceptions of themselves, their perceptions of their families and their thoughts about their future.

Gallery said both therapist and client can learn plenty from the art. In some of the drawings, she said, people draw their families in one corner and themselves in another.

“They realize it really mirrors their feelings of being very separate and isolated,” she said. “It helps them to see their own situation in a much more clear way.”

The presentation will begin at 1 p.m. General admission is $3. CAF is located on the second floor of the Paseo Nuevo shopping center. For information, call 966-5373.

Heard any good krummhorn music lately? Tonight may be the night, then, because the band Calliope is bringing its Renaissance music to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The program, which will include music from the 15th Century to the present, will open with the “Dances From Terpsichore,” from 1612. Show time is 7:30 p.m. General admission is $3. The museum is at 1130 State St. For information, call 963-4364.

The Marine Mammal Center of Santa Barbara will celebrate its 15th anniversary Friday with a slide show and lecture program at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Fleischmann Auditorium. Guests will include photographers Bob Talbot and Tom Campbell, Ernest Brooks of Brooks Institute and Peter Howorth, director of the mammal center. General admission is $5. Tickets will be available at the door. The museum is at 2559 Puesta del Sol Road.

Santa Barbara’s “Parade of Lights” will float from the Santa Barbara Yacht Club to the Cabrillo Bathhouse and back to Stearns Wharf on Sunday. A crowd of about 20,000 is expected to turn out for the sixth-annual event, which will feature about 75 festively decorated boats. Organizers suggest congregating along the shore between Shoreline Park and East Beach for the best view. The parade is set to begin at 6 p.m at the Santa Barbara Harbor.

Because of dry, desertlike conditions, an unusual assortment of plants can be found on the eight Baja California islands. But that doesn’t mean you have to travel that far to see the plants. On Monday, curator Steve Jurak will lead a lunchtime tour through the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s Baja Island collection. Participants will get to see, among other flora, the Talinum Guadalupensis from Guadalupe Island. It’s a succulent with large swollen stems. In season, the plant has a three-foot-tall flower cluster. There is also the Stephanomeria Guadalupensis, a low-growing shrub with brilliant gray leaves, also from Guadalupe Island. The tour is scheduled to begin at 12:10 p.m. and wrap up at 12:50 p.m. Admission is free. The garden is at 1212 Mission Canyon Road. For information, call 682-4726.

It’s almost Christmas, and yes, that means it’s time for the annual Headless Household Christmas concert, which will be held Tuesday at the Center Stage Theater. For the second year, the “new music” quartet will combine jazz, rock, country-Western and ethnic sounds with some Christmas cheer in what is becoming a Santa Barbara holiday tradition. Show time is 8 p.m. General admission is $8.50. The theater is on the second floor of the Paseo Nuevo shopping center.

Getting further into the holiday spirit, students from the Music and Arts Conservatory of Santa Barbara will give a wide-ranging performance Wednesday evening at the Red Lion Resort. The program will feature a brass quintet, a chamber trio, the conservatory band, poetry readings, dancing, a choir and theatrical pieces. Proceeds from the show will benefit the Santa Barbara Special Olympics and the conservatory. General admission is $10; reserved seats are $20. For information, call 569-5942.