diff --git a/python/pyarrow/tests/conftest.py b/python/pyarrow/tests/conftest.py
index 413f3db534e..74beb23994d 100644
--- a/python/pyarrow/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/python/pyarrow/tests/conftest.py
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
     'gandiva',
     'hdfs',
     'large_memory',
+    'memory_leak',
     'nopandas',
     'orc',
     'pandas',
@@ -65,6 +66,7 @@
     'gandiva': False,
     'hdfs': False,
     'large_memory': False,
+    'memory_leak': False,
     'orc': False,
     'nopandas': False,
     'pandas': False,
diff --git a/python/pyarrow/tests/test_adhoc_memory_leak.py b/python/pyarrow/tests/test_adhoc_memory_leak.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d95444d2d46
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/pyarrow/tests/test_adhoc_memory_leak.py
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import pytest
+
+import numpy as np
+import pyarrow as pa
+
+import pyarrow.tests.util as test_util
+
+try:
+    import pandas as pd
+except ImportError:
+    pass
+
+
+@pytest.mark.memory_leak
+@pytest.mark.pandas
+def test_deserialize_pandas_arrow_7956():
+    df = pd.DataFrame({'a': np.arange(10000),
+                       'b': [pd.util.testing.rands(5) for _ in range(10000)]})
+
+    def action():
+        df_bytes = pa.ipc.serialize_pandas(df).to_pybytes()
+        buf = pa.py_buffer(df_bytes)
+        pa.ipc.deserialize_pandas(buf)
+
+    # Abort at 128MB threshold
+    test_util.memory_leak_check(action, threshold=1 << 27, iterations=100)
diff --git a/python/pyarrow/tests/util.py b/python/pyarrow/tests/util.py
index 2b270b9bbd7..027133784e4 100644
--- a/python/pyarrow/tests/util.py
+++ b/python/pyarrow/tests/util.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 
 import contextlib
 import decimal
+import gc
 import numpy as np
 import os
 import random
@@ -122,6 +123,49 @@ def make_dataframe():
     return df
 
 
+def memory_leak_check(f, metric='rss', threshold=1 << 17, iterations=10,
+                      check_interval=1):
+    """
+    Execute the function and try to detect a clear memory leak either internal
+    to Arrow or caused by a reference counting problem in the Python binding
+    implementation. Raises exception if a leak detected
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    f : callable
+        Function to invoke on each iteration
+    metric : {'rss', 'vms', 'shared'}, default 'rss'
+        Attribute of psutil.Process.memory_info to use for determining current
+        memory use
+    threshold : int, default 128K
+        Threshold in number of bytes to consider a leak
+    iterations : int, default 10
+        Total number of invocations of f
+    check_interval : int, default 1
+        Number of invocations of f in between each memory use check
+    """
+    import psutil
+    proc = psutil.Process()
+
+    def _get_use():
+        gc.collect()
+        return getattr(proc.memory_info(), metric)
+
+    baseline_use = _get_use()
+
+    def _leak_check():
+        current_use = _get_use()
+        if current_use - baseline_use > threshold:
+            raise Exception("Memory leak detected. "
+                            "Departure from baseline {} after {} iterations"
+                            .format(current_use - baseline_use, i))
+
+    for i in range(iterations):
+        f()
+        if i % check_interval == 0:
+            _leak_check()
+
+
 def get_modified_env_with_pythonpath():
     # Prepend pyarrow root directory to PYTHONPATH
     env = os.environ.copy()