diff --git a/internals/panics.go b/internals/panics.go
index 56bee5d..a898893 100644
--- a/internals/panics.go
+++ b/internals/panics.go
@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ package internals
 import "fmt"
 
 const (
-	PanicTypeCast           = "Zog Panic: Type Cast Error\n Current context: %s\n Expected valPtr type to correspond with type defined in schema. But it does not. Expected type: *%T, got: %T\nFor more information see: https://zog.dev/panics#type-cast-errors"
-	PanicTypeCastCoercer    = "Zog Panic: Type Cast Error\n Current context: %s\n Expected coercer return value to correspond with type defined in schema. But it does not. Expected type: *%T, got: %T\nFor more information see: https://zog.dev/panics#type-cast-errors"
-	PanicMissingStructField = "Zog Panic: Struct Schema Definition Error\n Current context: %s\n Provided struct is missing expected schema key: %s.\n This means you have made a mistake in your schema definition.\nFor more information see: https://zog.dev/panics#schema-definition-errors"
+	PanicTypeCast                        = "Zog Panic: Type Cast Error\n Current context: %s\n Expected valPtr type to correspond with type defined in schema. But it does not. Expected type: *%T, got: %T\nFor more information see: https://zog.dev/panics#type-cast-errors"
+	PanicTypeCastCoercer                 = "Zog Panic: Type Cast Error\n Current context: %s\n Expected coercer return value to correspond with type defined in schema. But it does not. Expected type: *%T, got: %T\nFor more information see: https://zog.dev/panics#type-cast-errors"
+	PanicMissingStructField              = "Zog Panic: Struct Schema Definition Error\n Current context: %s\n Provided struct is missing expected schema key: %s.\n This means you have made a mistake in your schema definition.\nFor more information see: https://zog.dev/panics#schema-definition-errors"
+	PanicInvalidArgumentsExpectedPointer = "Zog Panic: Expected destination value to be a pointer but it was not. This is generally caused by forgetting to pass a pointer to your Validate/Parse function. Do schema.Validate(&myStruct), not schema.Validate(myStruct) "
 )
 
 func Panicf(format string, args ...any) {
diff --git a/struct.go b/struct.go
index 5fb08a1..71d5267 100644
--- a/struct.go
+++ b/struct.go
@@ -86,7 +86,12 @@ func (v *StructSchema) process(ctx *p.SchemaCtx) {
 	}
 
 	// 3. Process / validate struct fields
-	structVal := reflect.ValueOf(ctx.ValPtr).Elem()
+	structRefVal := reflect.ValueOf(ctx.ValPtr)
+	kind := structRefVal.Kind()
+	if kind != reflect.Pointer && kind != reflect.Interface {
+		p.Panicf(p.PanicInvalidArgumentsExpectedPointer)
+	}
+	structVal := structRefVal.Elem()
 	subCtx := ctx.NewSchemaCtx(ctx.Data, ctx.ValPtr, ctx.Path, v.getType())
 	defer subCtx.Free()
 	for key, processor := range v.schema {